Economic Plan for Essex
Essex County Council
22nd April 2014
1
Foreword
Economic growth is our top priority – our
county’s future depends upon securing
sustainable growth for our businesses and
communities. This will not just help our
businesses and communities to prosper; it will
support the public finances by generating a
return on our investments and allowing us to continue to support
those who are entitled to expect our help.
Economic growth is also a major priority for HM Government.
Through our membership of the South East Local Enterprise
Partnership (SELEP), local businesses and public sector partners in
Essex have the opportunity to negotiate a ‘Growth Deal’ with
Ministers. In return for resources and flexibilities to support the
delivery of key growth programmes, we will invest our own resources
to deliver a step change in our economic performance.
This document – our Economic Plan for Essex (EPfE) – shows how,
with support we are seeking from HM Government, we would
accelerate growth over the next seven years. And we are not starting
from scratch – we have a strong record of achievement upon which
to build. We have supported economic development across the
county; examples include a £100m property development in
Colchester town centre; Creative Business and Enterprise Centres in
Colchester and Braintree; a £25m programme to roll out superfast
broadband across the county; support for one of the world’s largest
health innovation centres at the Anglia Ruskin Medtech Campus; and
a transformational skills programme which has helped reduce the
number of our young people not in employment, education or
training by around 30% since 2010.
But we can and must do more; business as usual is not enough.
Acting now to secure a ‘Growth Deal’ with HM Government, at a
time when economic conditions are improving will give us the chance
to enable up to 117,745 new jobs and 81,310 new homes by 2021.
These results will be supported by significant improvements in our
transport infrastructure and public realm; by measures to support
entrepreneurs to start and stay in business; and by an enhanced
package of support to help our residents gain the skills they need to
secure and stay in work.
This plan, therefore, is our commitment to do more, with support
from HM Government, to stimulate economic growth in three
important ways:
 we will invest more on our own account, and encourage private
investment in worthwhile projects that will deliver economic
growth. Our ambition is to deliver £1bn of investment between
now and 2021;
 with this investment, and by working together, public and
private partners will help to deliver a major series of enabling
projects described in the plan that we have identified as key to
our future economic prosperity; and
2
 we will introduce a new and more proactive approach to
economic development. We will not simply deliver these
projects and hope for the expected investment to follow, but will
actively market our investment opportunities, encouraging new
businesses and investors and seeking out development partners
where appropriate.
We believe these three changes will “turn the curve” – taking us from
where we are now to a step increase in our economic performance
through our ability, working together, to create the conditions to
foster and enable economic growth.
This EPfE is based on our submission to HM Government, as part of
SELEP, for funding from the Single Local Growth Fund from 2015-16
onwards. It is intended to supplement the information submitted
through SELEP and provide a clear focus on our ambitions for Essex
and those of our partners in SELEP.
We expect to conclude a Growth Deal with HM Government,
following a period of negotiation, sometime in July. We will publish a
further version of this plan reflecting the outcome of ongoing
discussions with our partners – districts, boroughs and other
authorities, including the two unitary authorities – and of the deal we
have struck with HM Government.
Cllr Kevin Bentley
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and
Infrastructure
Essex County Council
3
Contents
This document sets out an Economic Plan for Essex. It articulates the challenges facing the Essex economy and the issues that need to be
addressed to secure sustainable growth. It sets out the interventions and investments that partners propose to make with the necessary support
from HM Government, supplemented with local resources, to help secure growth and a programme of co-investment that will support delivery.
The document also describes the role that HM Government can play in enabling local growth. It seeks a commitment from HM Government to
work in partnership with businesses, local authorities, colleges, universities and other partners in Essex to invest in growth enabling infrastructure,
and to shape national policy and practice to realise our shared growth ambitions and the full potential of the Essex economy.
The document is organised as follows:
Page 6
Our Ambition
This section summarises the economic outcomes we want to see achieved within the Essex economy.
Page 7-12
Our Plan
This section provides background to our Plan, and an overview of the challenges and opportunities
facing the local economy.
Page 13-21
Our Proposition
This section sets out the issues that partners must work together to address; the interventions we will
make to enable growth; the investment package we propose to marshal in support of these
interventions, and the role we expect HM Government to play.
Page 22-28
Skills
Page 29-58
Growth locations
Page 59-65
Productivity
Page 66-69
Our Commitment
to Delivery
These sections provide detail of partners’ proposals to improve skills across the Essex
workforce; deliver growth-enabling infrastructure in Essex’s key growth corridors (Growth
locations); and enhance support for enterprise and innovation and key growth sectors within
Essex (Productivity).
This section outlines the local partnerships and governance arrangements that will ensure effective
local delivery, accountability in local decision-making and assurance in the stewardship of public
investment.
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Executive Summary
The Economic Plan for Essex articulates Essex partners’ collective
plans for unlocking economic growth. It demonstrates a compelling
case for investment in the Essex economy that will enable:
 over 117,745 new jobs; and
 over 81,310 new homes by 2021.
Based on a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities
facing the Essex economy, we have set out a plan that will:
 improve skills across the Essex workforce by closing the gap
between the needs of employers and the choices learners
make. Essex’s Employability and Skills Board will lead this
work, directing local public-private and EU funding to shape
local skills programmes to address skills gaps and increase
employment;
 focuses a £1bn pipeline of infrastructure investment on our
four strategic growth corridors (the A120, A12, M11 and
A13/A127). This pipeline of enabling investments will deliver
the transport, property and skills infrastructure that will
secure growth in jobs and homes to 2021 and beyond; and
 enhance productivity within the Essex economy, focusing
support for business on five growth sectors. It also proposes
the integration of business support provision under a single
brand in a new partnership between local authorities and
Essex’s universities.
Our plans are premised on securing HM Government investment of
£363m through the single local growth fund. This document will
provide a basis for a process of negotiation with HM Government on
levels of local investment throughout Summer 2014.
If this investment is not forthcoming, this will have a substantial
impact on local partners’ ability to deliver the commitments set out
within this document. Without resources from HM Government,
local partners will be unable to deliver the programme of investment
that will enable job and housing growth on this scale.
Our Economic Plan also sets out the commitments that we seek from
HM Government in working with local partners to secure growth
outcomes. This includes, but is not limited to:
 committing to deliver specific national rail and road
investment by agreed dates;
 provide seed fund investment, through the Local Growth
fund, for a new property investment fund; and
 enabling the Essex Employment and Skills, in partnership with
the sector guilds, Essex’s share of SELEP’s £4.3million per year
adult skills budget, in order to address skills shortages in
priority sectors.
Our Ambition
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 the delivery of infrastructure improvements that support
business growth – we want businesses to have access to the
right premises, and for Essex’s transport links to enable,
rather than inhibit economic growth.
This section summarises the economic outcome we want to see
achieved within the Essex economy.
1.
2.
We want to secure sustainable economic growth for businesses
and communities across Essex. Everything in this plan supports
this ambition.
3.
We will determine our success based on measures of:
 quantify baseline our position at 2014;
 job growth across Essex – we aim to secure 117,745 new jobs
through the delivery of this plan;
 project anticipated trends based on demographic changes
and the impact of our plans and proposals; and
 increased levels of output across the economy – we want to
see output increase in growth corridors and in key sectors;
 improvements in productivity – we want to see sustained
increases in the earnings of those working in Essex;
 increased house building – we aim to see 81,310 new homes
built over the life of this plan;
To help us manage progress towards this goal, we have
commissioned specialised economic analysis to:
 provide regular updates on changes in the local economy.
4.
This intelligence will to allow us to make evidence-based
judgements on where our plans are progressing well, where
progress is being made, and where further action is required.
 improvements in broadband – we want to maximise the
number of households and businesses that have access to
superfast broadband;
 the skills of the Essex workforce – we want more Essex
businesses to be able to recruit suitable people;
 the economic activity of our young people – we want Essex
to be a NEET free county (people not in education,
employment and training); and
Our Plan
6
 we will introduce a new and more proactive approach to
economic development. We will not simply deliver these
projects and hope for the expected investment to follow, but will
actively market our investment opportunities, encouraging new
businesses and investors and seeking out development partners
where appropriate.
We believe these three changes will “turn the curve” – taking us from
where we are now to a step increase in our economic performance
through our ability, working together, to create the conditions to
foster and enable economic growth.
This EPfE is based on our submission to HM Government, as part of
SELEP, for funding from the Single Local Growth Fund from 2015-16
onwards. It is intended to supplement the information submitted
through SELEP and provide a clear focus on our ambitions for Essex
and those of our partners in SELEP.
We expect to conclude a Growth Deal with HM Government,
following a period of negotiation, sometime in July. We will publish a
further version of this plan reflecting the outcome of ongoing
discussions with our partners – districts, boroughs and other
authorities, including the two unitary authorities – and of the deal we
have struck with HM Government.
Cllr Kevin Bentley
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Economic Growth and
Infrastructure
Essex County Council
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we know the level of investment that Ministers are prepared to
make in the Essex economy, we will update this Plan and publish
a revised draft (anticipated Autumn 2014).
Where central government investment is not forthcoming, this
will have a substantial impact on local partners’ ability to
deliver the commitments set out within this document.
11. Whatever the level of investment local partners secure from HM
Government, this plan presents proposals that build on the
strengths of Essex’s cities and towns, its businesses, its
universities, its international gateways and the hard work of the
county’s residents. Since 2008, partners across the county have
been working through challenging economic issues and
positioning our county for recovery. As growth returns we want
to secure the benefits for our communities, investing in
infrastructure, enhancing our workforce and ensuring that our
businesses continued innovation drives prosperity.
Our challenges and opportunities
12. This document is a plan – not a research report. Nevertheless,
our plans are based on a deep understanding of the challenges
facing the Essex economy, and the opportunities for growth.
They have been shaped to help us exploit our strengths, take
major opportunities and tackle the challenges facing our
economy.
Job growth, productivity and demographic change
13. Securing sustainable growth means securing a sustained increase
in the productive capacity of the Essex economy. Relative to
other English counties, Essex already has a large and productive
economy – it supports 626,000 jobs; some 60,000 businesses,
and has a total output valued at around £30bn per year.
14. Independent projections suggest that Essex will experience
substantial demographic growth between 2014 and 2021.
Analysis of 2013-based forecasts from the East of England
forecasting model for the period 2014-21, suggest that Essex can
expect to see growth in:
• overall population of around 71,000 (4.9%);
• the working age-population of 13,000 (1.4%); and
• the number of households of some 33,000 (5.5%).
15. To accommodate this growth, whilst maintaining current
employment rates, occupancy and levels of net commuting,
Essex will need to secure:
• a net increase of 33,000 local jobs by 2021 – further
growth will help exert downward pressure on
unemployment, reduce net commuting and help address
Essex’s historic jobs deficit; and
• a net increase in dwelling stock of 34,000 homes – it is
estimated that a further 20,000 further homes would be
required to tackle currently unmet demand.
16. Levels of job growth required to sustain these demographic
changes are not currently achieved within Essex. Although levels
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This section provides background to our Economic Plan for Essex,
the process through which the Plan has been developed, and the
role it plays within Essex, and in supporting the South East Local
Enterprise Partnership’s (SELEP’s) Strategic Economic Plan.
undertaking discretionary activity to tackle examples of market
failure.
7.
Our Plan has also been designed to reflect the substantial
changes in the national funding system for economic
development. In particular, it reflects the emergence of the
Single Local Growth Fund (SLGF) – a national pot bringing
together capital funding for Transport, Housing and Skills
Infrastructure – and through which Local Enterprise Partnerships
(LEPs) can bid for funding. Around 70% of the SLGF is intended
to fund the development of transport infrastructure.
8.
The proposals set out in our Plan are amongst the fundamental
building blocks of SELEP’s bid to the SLGF. The delivery of the
proposals set out in this document is premised on a partnership
with HM Government and a programme of joint investment
through a local ‘Growth Deal’. The local ‘Growth Deal’ is the
mechanism through which HM Government will allocate SLGF.
9.
Members of the SELEP Board, including those from Essex will
look to negotiate a growth deal with HM Government over
summer 2014. Once this growth deal – and SLGF monies have
been devolved (April 2015) – it will be for local partners, working
with local businesses through the Greater Essex Business Board,
to invest in programmes that unlock local growth. SLGF fund
will need to be supported with local investments and additional
investment leveraged from private sector developers.
This section also provides an overview of the challenges and
opportunities within the Essex economy.
5.
6.
The Economic Plan for Essex is based on the collective ambitions
of all local authorities in Essex. It identifies the steps that local
partners will take together, and with the private sector and HM
Government to accelerate local growth over the next seven
years (2014-2021), and to lay the foundations for long-term
sustainable growth in the years to follow. It sets out a portfolio
of investments, projects and programmes that will deliver our
growth ambitions – securing jobs, new homes, higher skills and
earnings for residents across all communities in Essex.
Our Plan is designed to be an enduring, long-term plan for
growth in the Essex economy. It has been developed with input
from public and private sector partners from across Essex. It
makes clear the role that partners in local government, in higher
and further education, and in central government must play in
securing and accelerating economic growth. Our proposals
recognise, however, that most of the growth to 2021 will be
created by the private sector, the primary public sector role is to
create the conditions for sustainable growth in the private
sector. It may do this by exercising its statutory responsibilities
(e.g. identifying land for development, building our roads,
educating our children) or by exercising leadership and
10. As partners within SELEP, we expect to know the outcome of our
work to secure a Growth Deal by the end of Summer 2014. Once
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deeply entrepreneurial business culture with a relatively high
number of businesses in relation to our population. Despite the
economic downturn and recession, the number of businesses in
Essex increased by over 9,000 between 2008 and 2012.
22. In common with national and regional patterns, the vast
majority of Essex business are micro businesses – nine in every
ten businesses has fewer than ten employees (and the majority
have less than five) and only 1% of Essex businesses (365 such
enterprises ) employ over 100 people. Although we would
expect to see the pattern of business growth in Essex mirror
trends underlying economic growth, there is evidence to suggest
that it has become harder to set up and sustain a small business
in Essex in recent years. The number of business start-ups has
reduced, from almost 7,000 per year in 2007 to a low of under
6,000 per year in 2010. However, in the last two years the
numbers have begun to rise and were back up to 6,540 in 2012.
While the trend has seen ebbs and flows, overall business
closures have increased too, from 5,700 in 2007 to just under
6,200 in 2012. Although business survival rates are broadly
comparable with regional and national levels, the net effect is an
erosion of Essex’s business base.
23. The fact that Essex’s business community is dominated by small
and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is a challenge for
increasing productivity. In many cases, small businesses can find
it difficult to commercialise new ideas, access development
finance, to explore new markets (including export markets) and
attract investment. This can be a particular challenge amongst
emerging micro-enterprises that are established based on the
specialist skills of a single entrepreneur.
24. The challenge for businesses and for productivity is underlined
further by challenges in the Essex labour market. 8.5% of Essex
residents have no qualifications and only 28% hold higher level
(level 4) qualifications. This ‘skills deficit’ is reflected in lower
value-add employment, lower productivity levels and lower
earnings. But it also has a direct impact on businesses’ ability to
recruit and retain employees with the right skills. Businesses
across Essex consistently report skills gaps as a key challenge to
business development, which may also deter new businesses
with higher skills requirements from locating here.
Transport infrastructure
25. The capacity of key transport corridors within Essex is a key
challenge to securing growth – a challenge that partners are
working together to meet. The key corridors in Essex are:
 A120 - Haven Gateway Corridor;
 A12 /Greater Eastern Main Line – Heart of Essex Corridor;
 M11 /West Anglia Mainline – West Essex Corridor; and
 A13/A127 – Thames Gateway South Essex (TGSE) Corridor
26. Key road and rail links have been placed under pressure over the
past ten years due to factors such as increased trade in goods
through key ports and airports; increased car ownership and
relatively limited use of public transport. National government
policy changes – and the letting of short-term rail franchises –
10
has, until recently militated against securing greater private
investment in Essex’s rail infrastructure.
27. A significant factor affecting congestion and journey time
reliability has been population growth, shifting travel to work
areas (although this varies between districts), and the associated
increase in transport flows. Without significant levels of capital
investment from local and national government, private
transport operators and developers, pressure on the network is
likely to increase. Key road and rail links within and between key
towns are reaching, and many are exceeding, their capacity –
particularly at peak times. The use of rail is particularly
important in Essex, where we have more commuters travelling
into London than any other home county.
28. Local partners have sought to exploit the potential of enhanced
telecommunications infrastructure as a means to prevent
unnecessary journeys. This will have a wider impact on growth
and productivity, as increased broadband coverage will support
businesses and attract investment to Essex. It also has the
potential to increase opportunities for home-working and
remote-working, reducing the demand on travel networks at
peak periods. The importance of this is demonstrated by recent
census returns which show that the biggest change in journey to
work patterns in the last 20 years has actually been the increase
in people working from home.
Housing
29. Housing is of fundamental importance both for the wellbeing of
residents but also for the effective functioning of the local
economy. Labour markets function more efficiently when there
is ample supply of good quality housing for rent and for sale in all
segments of the local market. Those who work in Essex, as well
as those who commute to work elsewhere, need this supply. A
shortage of any type of housing – for senior executives, for
families, for key workers, or for low and moderate income
households – hampers economic growth.
30. A ready supply of good quality, affordable housing can boost the
local economy, with the majority of household expenditure
supporting businesses in the local area. Also, the construction
and maintenance of housing generates significant employment
and GVA in its own right. Housing growth can also be a net
contributor to local authorities’ revenue, both through council
tax revenues and New Homes Bonus, as well as the reduction of
dependence on some housing related benefits.
31. Partners’ aim, therefore, should be to ensure that a ready supply
of housing is available. At present, four local plans have been
prepared for district authorities in Essex. Each of these local
plans sets out the scale of housing required, the mix between
affordable housing and private housing, the planned rate of
development and the principal locations for new development.
However, this means that there are eight Essex authorities that
don’t have an agreed local plan.
32. Essex’s housing challenge is considerable and complex. Chief
amongst the challenges to economic growth, however, is Essex’s
historic (and continuing) undersupply of housing to meet
household growth. Between 2008 and 2011, in common with
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most of the rest of England, housing completions in Essex were
well below the levels suggested necessary by region-wide plans.
Between 2001-02 and 2007-08, 39,422 homes were built in
Greater Essex (including Southend and Thurrock) as a whole, or
an average of 5,632 homes per annum. Between 2008-09 and
2012-13, this rate fell to 4,064 homes per annum.
33. Going forward, we face severe challenges. Each local authority
already has, or is currently preparing, an objective assessment of
their housing requirements to underpin their local plan (or
developing plan). A preliminary assessment of the annual build
rates currently proposed in approved local plans, and those still
in preparation suggests that an annual build rate of 6,091 homes
per annum or 48,728 homes is planned over the 8 years to 2021.
When all local plans in Essex are complete and approved, we
expect that the annual target will be between 6,500 and 7,000
homes per annum or up to 56,000 homes over the eight years. If
annual completions remain at around 4000 homes per annum,
as in recent years, this would lead to very significant shortfall in
housing of between 16,000 and 24,000 homes over the next
eight years
Our Proposition
This section sets out the issues that partners will work together to
address, and provides a high level summary of the interventions we
will make to enable growth. It also presents a high level summary
of the investment package we propose to marshal; the role we
expect HM Government to play, and the impact that local and
national partners can have on the local economy.
34. Our analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing the Essex
economy, and discussions with partners and local businesses,
has allowed us to identify the key issues that need to be
addressed in order to enable sustainable economic growth.
Future growth, and the prosperity of our businesses, residents
and communities, depends upon an effective response to these
issues.
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Issue 1: Enhancing the Essex workforce
35. In order to compete, Essex will need to develop a workforce with
the right skills – and the right level of skills – to support current
employers, future employers and the needs of businesses in
Essex’s key growth sectors. The county’s workforce will also
become a smaller component of our total population over the
next seven years. Without increased labour productivity, the
pressure that the changing dependency ratio could place on
living standards will be an acute challenge.
36. Challenges in Essex include levels of basic literacy and numeracy,
as well as skills gaps in relation to science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) which are important to
each of the county’s key growth sectors. In tackling this issue,
there will be a need to:
• ensure local skills programmes emphasise employability;
• give employers a greater role in influencing the skills
system - closing the gap between the needs of business
and the choices learners make;
• influence young people’s perceptions of careers relating to
STEM; and
• increase provision and facilities in the county to enable
delivery of the skills programmes.
Issue 2: unlocking growth in Essex’s strategic growth corridors
37. Investment to enable growth and development in established
corridors offers the greater return on investment. And there are
many sites which would remain undeveloped without catalytic
investment in critical infrastructure. Addressing this issue means
delivering and enabling significant infrastructure developments
that:
• help to address the capacity issues on Essex’s strategic
road and rail links that place a limit on potential growth;
• unlock housing growth – increasing housing supply to help
ensure that residents have access to affordable housing;
• unlock job growth – ensuring key growth sectors have
access to the land and premises they need to expand and
sustain employment; and
• make Essex more attractive to investors (at home and
overseas), business and the people they employ.
38. In tackling these issues, local partners will need to work to
develop a joined up housing strategy and a common
understanding of overarching housing need. They will also need
to develop a more proactive relationship with developers and
housing associations to better understand the barriers to
investment and development. This can then inform the work
that ECC and partners take to enable specific schemes.
Issue 3: Enhancing the productivity within the Essex economy
39. Essex has the assets to exploit a competitive advantage in key
sectors and to bring about a step change in local innovation and
Research and Development investment. There is also potential
for Essex businesses to compete in world-wide markets and
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attract investment – potential which can be realised with access
to the right finance and support.
40. In tackling this issue, it is vital that partners balance the support
needs of the wider business community, with the fact that
support for businesses in key growth sectors is likely to deliver a
greater return for the economy at large. We need to strike the
right balance of provision, ensuring that we:
• improve services for start-up enterprises – encouraging
new start-ups and helping fledgling businesses to survive;
and
• make it easy for existing businesses know how to access
support, focussing on support that can enhance
productivity and competitiveness (e.g. Innovation,
promoting international trade, attracting inward
investment).
Issue 4: The reputation of Essex
41. If Essex is to attract businesses into the county, and attract
investment from the UK and overseas, it needs to develop and
maintain the right reputation. Research from KPMG suggests
that investors focus on a small number of basic criteria when
selecting locations: political stability, economic growth, the
accessibility of skilled human resources, the quality of education
and the availability (and cost) of real estate.
42. If Essex is to compete for investment in an increasingly
globalised market, partners need to take steps to improve
Essex’s performance against these criteria and – equally
important – position Essex as a destination for investors. This
means showcasing investment opportunities in Essex, the offer
that partners can make to new businesses, and strengthening
links with national agencies that promote UK trade to the world.
43. Reputation matters as much with public investors too – not least
the UK Government. The lobbying and advocacy work of
organisations like the Core Cities Group and Centre for Cities has
enhanced the reputation of England’s core cities amongst policy
makers at national level over the past ten years. Their work has
been so successful that cities across England have been able to
access additional funding and flexibilities from central
government its City-Deal programme.
44. Despite making its case for a ‘county deal’ with Government,
Essex has been excluded from this process to date. Only by
enhancing Essex’s reputation as a pro-growth county with the
ambition and capacity to secure growth can local partners
position themselves to benefit from changes in growth policy at
national level.
Issue 5: Resistance to development
45. Delivering our ambitions will require local partners to achieve an
unprecedented level of housing and physical development.
While residents across Essex would recognize the general need
for more homes and more local jobs, the specific design, location
and phasing of development can in some cases, present a
challenge for communities.
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46. If partners are to achieve the level of growth and development
required in Essex, they will need to engage with communities
and their representatives, demonstrating the powerful case for
sustainable growth and the benefits this can bring to our
neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities.
Issue 6: Public sector partners’ capacity to support growth
47. Essex is home to one of the most complex partnership
environments in the country with one county council, twelve
district, borough and city councils, two neighbouring unitary
authorities, two universities and multiple further education
colleges. This is in addition to the range of national agencies and
private sector organisations that play a role in development,
business support and workforce development.
48. This complexity presents a challenge to entrepreneurs, investors
and business support providers seeking to engage with public
sector partners. It also means that key skills, professional
knowledge and expertise can become fragmented across
multiple partners and that responsibility for key decisions is
divided across multiple agencies.
49. If partners are to enable the ambition development programme
outlined in this document, they will need to work together to
consider new delivery mechanisms, new agreements and
working practices that support delivery at pace.
50. Our Economic Plan for Essex is based on identifying and
delivering the right projects and interventions to unlock
economic potential. To help to do this, we have developed the
following package of measures:
On investment, we will:
 use over £100m of resources from local authorities across Essex
to increase the number of projects we can deliver and in some
cases the speed with which projects get off the ground and the
likelihood of levering in additional support;

commit to deliver £1bn of investment in infrastructure by 2021,
on the projects identified below and the further projects they
unlock;

participate in the proposed South East Fund (SEFUND - a
revolving property investment fund worth £5.2bn across the
SELEP area) to support the delivery of suitable infrastructure and
the creation of a longer term pipeline of development.
On joined up support for enabling physical development, we will:
 invest in creating a major infrastructure delivery unit to bring
together capacity across a range of public services, underpinned
by a single infrastructure plan for the county;

support the work of this unit by developing an Essex Planning
Compact – a series of collective commitments to deliver planning
Our interventions
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
decisions faster and to offer other customer-focussed support to
large planning applications; and
Our proposed investment package
prepare a prospectus for all major development opportunities in
the county that promotes the opportunities unlocked by the
projects outlined here, which points potential investors from
home and abroad to the major infrastructure delivery unit.
51. Over the next six years, partners in Essex have made an ‘in
principle’ commitment of over £100m of local authority
resources to leverage further investment from private investors,
EU sources and HM Government’s single local growth fund
(SLGF).
On joined up direct support for businesses and people, we will:
 invest in a portfolio of capital projects that cement Essex’s
competitive advantage in key sectors and positions its skills
infrastructure to support future growth;

deliver a targeted package of investment to expand and enhance
innovation centres at the Knowledge Gateway in Colchester and
Anglia Ruskin’s Med-tech campuses;

integrate business support provision through joint
commissioning and delivery across the county and Essex’s
universities – providing a single pathway to enhanced business
support;

develop and expand Essex’s network of business incubation
centres, and roll out a network of ‘Growth hubs’ to provide
integrated business space and support; and

provide clear pathways from learning to employment by
establishing employer-led skills provisions, including
programmes for training; the provision of information, advice
and guidance; and skills brokerage.
52. At this stage, we have already identified a pipeline of growth-
enabling capital investment projects totalling a value of £1.02bn
to 2021. This represents the pipeline of projects for which we
are seeking HM Government investment through the SLGF. We
expect further growth-enabling projects to be identified and
brought forward for development between 2014 and 2021. A
complementary programme of growth-enabling investment will
be taken forward by partners across the SELEP area, including
Southend-on Sea and Thurrock.
53. Our current project pipeline includes investment in transport
projects, enabling property developments and enhancements to
Essex’s skills infrastructure. We expect these projects to be
funded through local authority contributions, private sector
investment, and the SLGF (through the SEFUND - see below - and
through direct contributions to transport infrastructure).
Figure 1: Growth-enabling projects by type
16
Investment in
skills and sector
support, £70.1m
Transport
£456.9m
Enabling property
development,
£492.6m
Total pipeline value: £1.02bn. These investments will be delivered in parallel with a
complementary investment programmes in Southend, Thurrock and the wider SELEP
area.
Figure 2: Current pipeline by funding source
Local authority
£122.9m
54. Given proposals that the SEFUND be seeded by SLGF, our
pipeline forecasts indicative local authority contributions of
£122.9m to leverage investment from private and other sources
of £539.8m to give an indicative local investment package of
£662.7m. With an SLGF requirement of £357m (excluding £5m
of revenue funding for integrated business support), our project
pipeline has a local:national leverage ratio of 1.9:1. Further detail
on this programme of capital investments can be found in the
Growth Locations chapter below.
55. In addition to this pipeline of growth-enabling capital
investments, local partners have developed a programme of
support for Enterprise and Innovation, and for skills
development programmes. Again, full details can be found in
Productivity and People chapters to follow, but partners
headline financial plans are as follows:
SLGF (Direct)
£255.8
SLGF (SEFUND)
£101.2m
 Productivity: local partners have identified a package of
revenue funding of some £73m over the period 2014-2021,
funded by local authorities, universities, private investors
and EU funding streams. Partners are seeking a further
£5m from HM Government to support this programme.
 Skills: partners work to enhance skills will be delivered
with the support of £27m of EU funding, matched 1:1 by a
combination of national opt ins (£18.07m), private
investment (£6.7m), local public sector investment (£0.7m)
and support from the Essex Voluntary and Community
sector (£2.2m).1
Developer/
private sector,
£411.2m
Other External
Funding
£128.6
Total pipeline value: £1.02bn. Local partners are seeking a further £5m of revenue
funding to support the integration of business support services (as outlined in the
Productivity chapter, pages 59-65). This is not shown in the chart above.
1
Essex may also exploit a further £2m share of ESF funding for community led local
development to enable coastal and other deprived communities to develop local projects
that support SELEP’s growth deal.
17
Co-investing with government
56. While our investment proposals require financial support from
HM Government, securing sustainable growth across our county
will require Ministers and Whitehall departments to do more
than devolve funding. Our Economic Plan for Essex treats HM
Government as an equal and active partner in the Essex
economy. We are, therefore, looking to Ministers to shape
national policy and practice to help enable local growth and, in
so doing, secure an economic return for the UK as a whole.
57. As we bring forward transport investments, we will be asking HM
Government to:
 commit to deliver specific national rail and road
investment by agreed dates.
We will be asking HM Government to make firm
commitments to deliver specific national rail network,
motorway, and national trunk road investments by agreed
dates. These are funded through Network Rail, Highways
Agency and other national budgets, and include:
-
the Lower Thames Crossing;
a comprehensive solution to the lack of capacity at
Junction 30/31 of the M25;
corridor improvements on the A12, A120 and M11
(including Junction 7a);
works at Brentwood and Shenfield Stations to
support Crossrail development;
capacity improvements and integrated transport
initiatives on the Great Eastern Mainline (GEML),
-
-
West Anglia Mainline (WAML) (including 4
tracking) and opportunities offered by Crossrail 2;
exploring a smart card travel system for rail and
bus travel in the Essex, Southend and Thurrock;
investment in the London Underground Central
Line and rolling stock, including station travel
planning and interchange enhancements at Epping,
Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Roding
Valley Stations; and
use of the Network Rail National Journey Time
Reduction Fund to invest in measures that would
allow for increased speeds on the GEML.
We are also asking that Network Rail works proactively
with Essex County Council and Chelmsford City Council on
the improvements needed to bring about a new station at
Beaulieu Park and improved track capacity in the
Chelmsford area.
We will also be asking HM Government to upgrade
stretches of the A13 in neighbouring Thurrock and in Essex
to serve the new deep sea container port at London
Gateway and to fully realise the potential of DP World’s
investment. This road is not currently in the stewardship
of the Highways Agency. These national network
improvements are fundamental to the future prosperity of
Essex and the nation as a whole.
 Devolve Highways Agency responsibilities to local
highways authorities.
18
We will be asking HM Government to enter into a dialogue
with us, and wider SELEP partners, on the practicalities of
selective devolution of Highways Agency responsibilities to
local highways authority where this would result in cost
savings to HM Treasury, faster scheme delivery and
guaranteed delivery of homes and jobs.
 Devolve power to make changes to the proposed
transport programme.
We will be asking HM Government for local flexibility
within SELEP to agree any changes to the transport
programme, given that we have local systems in place
which enable us to manage these programmes effectively.
58. To support property infrastructure investments in Essex’s
Growth locations, we will be asking HM Government to:
 Provide seed fund investment through the Local Growth
Fund to establish SEFUND.
This fund, developed by partners across the SELEP area, is
designed to lever in substantial new sums of private, public
and EU funding to invest in the provision of high-quality
real estate infrastructure. We will be asking HM
Government to provide seed capital of £331m from the
SLGF which will unlock further private and European
investment. In common with local authorities across the
SELEP area, Essex partners have agreed, in principle, to
match SEFUND investments on a project by-project basis.
59. As we implement proposals to improve productivity, we will be
asking HM Government to:
 Grant Assisted Area Status to Tendring and CORE (Centre
for Offshore Renewal Energy) status to Harwich to
support the development and growth of the offshore
energy sector.
Extending Assisted Area Status to Tendring District will
help to attract additional investment and unlock new
investment sources to increase economic activity across
the area. The Centres for Offshore Renewable Energy
(COREs) are integral to the delivery of the UK Offshore
Wind Industrial Strategy and are required to work both at a
local level with the industry and also internationally to
attract inward investment. We will be asking HM
Government to extend CORE status to Harwich to build on
the renewables sector within the local area.
 Ensure that the Growth Hub model deployed in Southend
is replicated in Essex.
Essex partners are keen to roll out a network of ‘Growth hubs’
to provide integrated business space and support. We will
therefore be working with partners in Southend and TGSE to
explore the possibility of their Growth Hub model providing
the basis for similar arrangements across Essex.
 Support the integration of Essex partners’ enterprise and
business support activity under a single brand.
Underpinning Essex partners’ programme of enhanced
business support provision will be an ambitious
19
programme of work to integrate business support
arrangements in Essex under a single brand and to provide
a joined-up and coherent pathway to business support (see
Productivity section below). To support this, we will be
asking HM Government to commit £5m in revenue funding
to support this radical new approach. We will also be
asking Ministers to ensure that national business support
providers (e.g. Growth Accelerator, UKTI) work to integrate
their programmes under this brand and pathway.
60. As we work to enhance the skills of Essex’s workforce, we will be
asking HM Government to:
 Fund investment in skills infrastructure.
The college estate in Essex needs significant investment.
Essex partners wants to secure sufficient capital
investment to ensure our skills infrastructure can deliver
provision that meets the needs of employers and learners.
To support our proposals for developing and enhancing
this infrastructure (outlined in the Skills chapter below) we
will be asking HM Government for a minimum of £13.8m
through the SLGF. Essex partners are working with
partners across the SELEP area to secure £128m of capital
funding to invest in skills infrastructure over the years to
2021.
 Enable the Essex ESB, in partnership with the sector guilds
to determine the use of Essex’s share of SELEP’s
£4.3million per year adult skills budget.
This ask is with providers’ agreement and would support
moves towards employer-led skills provision.
 Redeploy unspent national initiatives funding, such as
Youth Contract and current ESF projects to fund local
projects that support SELEP priorities.
 Commit to local determination and co-commissioning of
European Social Funding to ensure it will deliver local
priorities.
The impacts we expect to see:
61. The full impact of our plans, interventions and investment
proposals will depend on the level of financial and non-financial
support our plans receive from HM Government.
62. As noted above, we expect to know the outcome of our work
with partners to secure a Growth Deal by the end of Summer
2014. Our plans and proposals are scalable and, once we know
the level of investment that Ministers are prepared to make in
the Essex economy, we will update our Plan and publish a
revised draft (anticipated Autumn 2014).
63. At this stage, assuming that HM Government makes the full
investment in Essex that local partners seek, our plans are
expected to enable:
 over 117,745 new jobs to 2021; and
 over 81,310 new homes to 2021.
20
64. The following sections of this document provide further detail on
the projects, interventions and investment that partners propose
for the local economy:
 the Skills section provides details of partners’ proposals to
improve skills across the Essex workforce;
 the Growth locations section provides detail of partners’
proposals to deliver growth-enabling infrastructure in
Essex’s key growth corridors; and
 the Productivity section provides details of partners’
proposals to enhance support for enterprise and
innovation and support key growth sectors within Essex.
21
Skills
This section provides detail on partners’ proposals to improve skills
across the Essex workforce.
65.
Essex has significant opportunities for economic and
employment growth. A well-educated and skilled workforce is
key to realising this growth, improving the productivity of
existing businesses, and attracting both new business and inward
investment.
66.
Improving education and skills levels also gives better life
chances and opportunities for individuals and families. Partners’
goal, therefore, is to develop a workforce – and a network of
education and skills provision – that is responsive to the needs of
local business. This will ensure local businesses can access the
skills they need to grow and that our residents can fulfil their
ambitions.
67.
Many of the challenges facing Essex are common to other areas
of England. We know, for example, that there are too few
apprenticeships and vocational training opportunities in STEM
and other growth sectors; we know that many of our employers
find it difficult to recruit, train and retain young people. We
know too that low levels of literacy and numeracy can
undermine residents’ chances of sustainable employment and
undermine the productivity across the local economy.
68.
But tackling the skills challenge in Essex will require something
more than commissioning new skills programmes; it needs
structural change of the local skills system. England’s current
skills system is learner-led – it is complex and slow to respond to
changing employer needs. Within this system, poor labour
market awareness impedes the career choices of young people
and adults. Many simply take the courses that are available
through local providers – not those that will best equip them for
work. The result is that young people often leave college having
developed skills that do not reflect the needs of local employers
and which are of limited value in our key growth sectors. This
inhibits the growth of local businesses and limits opportunities
for people across our county.
Reforming the local skills system
69.
Local partners want to see changes to the skills system that close
the gap between employers and learners and give local
businesses a greater role in influencing local skills provision.
70.
The Essex’s Employment & Skills Board (ESB) is a driving force for
positive change on skills and employment in Essex, providing
leadership within the system, with members drawn largely from
the private sector, but with additional members from the public
and further/higher education sectors. The ESB is taking an
industry intelligence driven approach, piloting a number of new
employer-led initiatives. It is using a £1.05m Skills Investment
Fund, provided by Essex County Council and Southend-on-Sea
22
Borough Council, to pilot innovative new skills programmes that
could be mainstreamed if the case can be made to HM
Government that greater local flexibility is required.
71.
The ESB has set a number of priorities to increase employment
and productivity through enhanced skills. These are:
 to create a balanced approach to training provision to
ensure the needs of employers and young people are met;
particularly focusing on increasing the talent pool for, and
within, STEM-related sectors;
 to increase the proportion of residents who hold basic
literacy and numeracy qualifications and employability skills;
and
73.
Essex’s approach to skills
74.
The ESB will build on work that partners across the public and
private sectors in Essex have been doing to enhance the skills of
the workforce, to exploit opportunities within and across our
growth sectors, and to make the system work better for learners
and businesses. This includes:
The ESB has agreed a number of actions against these priorities
including a package of work and support with secondary schools;
continuous personal development for STEM subjects; expansion
of the STEM in Schools programme, and financial support for
SMEs to train young recruits to boost youth employment and
ensure greater productivity.
 The Essex Apprenticeships Programme: This programme
has supported over 2,600 young people into jobs in over 100
apprenticeship frameworks – a third of which were STEMrelated. Of almost 1,400 starters by March 2011, 70%
sustained employment (often with further training) beyond
12 months and a further one in five undertook further
training. Essex Apprenticeships stimulated an 83% increase
in the take up of apprenticeships among 16-18 year olds in
Essex and, having delivered a quarter of all apprenticeship
starts in National Apprenticeship Service’s pilot (2009-11),
has received substantial national recognition. The
Programme has delivered a return of £15.17 for every
pound of public money invested – an economic impact
worth some £355 million.
Working closely with the provider network, the ESB, through the
SELEP, seeks to influence the use of mainstream skills funding to
try to address, particularly technical, skills shortages in the area.
 The STEM Industry in Schools project: Essex partners have
been working to raise awareness of, and demand to enter,
STEM-related industries amongst young people. Partners
have launched a package of measures including a STEM
 to increase participation of young people aged 16-24 in
employment, education and training through enhancing
employability and basic skills, raising awareness of careers in
key sectors, and stimulating apprenticeships and other
employer supported vocational pathways.
72.
In response, Essex Adult Community Learning will place
increased focus and revenue on addressing the literacy and
numeracy challenge and enhancing the employability of,
particularly, our unemployed, residents.
23
Industry in Schools project, enhanced careers information
and pre-apprenticeship provision. The first brings industry to
life for young people and has supported over 1,000 pupils at
12 schools to engage with STEM businesses through
company visits, project work and 73 pupils have industry
mentors. The aim is to ensure that young people can make
informed training, qualification and career choices. It has
already prompted many to choose STEM related pathways.
Skills Centre) and in Tendring (Harwich Energy Skills Centre),
and at more specialist centres in:
 Basildon (Renewables/ environmental technologies);
 Brightlingsea (Marine engineering/boat building);
 Southend Airport (Aviation/aircraft maintenance);
 Colchester Institute (Offshore wind).
 The establishment of the highly regarded Essex
Employment and Skills Board (ESB):
www.esb.essexpartnership.org – to provide a strategic
forum for employers to prioritise and affect change in the
system to meet changing labour market needs.
 The Skills for Economic Growth project: has filled a gap in
local skills provision by providing opportunities to up-skill
the workforce in key sectors. The project has supported 140
SMEs across Essex with bespoke higher level skills training
since April 2013. The project has delivered an economic
return of £45 for each £1 of public money invested, with
SMEs who have received support estimating an impact
equivalent to some £8.6 million in new business.
The Greater Essex Skills Evidence Base2: designed to inform
and influence skills providers across Essex, this assessment
of current and future skills and employment needs offers a
rich source of industry intelligence for Essex’s districts and
sectors. The latest edition of the evidence base was
published in November 2013. The Greater Essex skills
evidence base has inspired a similar SELEP wide assessment
of skills demand.
Previous industry intelligence has helped to unlock millions
of pounds for capacity improvements and direct delivery at
multi-disciplinary skills centres on Canvey Island (Canvey
2
For a summary, please follow the link - http://essexpartnership.org/content/essex-skillsevidence-base-summary
 Essex’s Transformational Skills Programme: has contributed
to reducing the proportion of young people, 16-19, NEETs –
from 6.9% in March 2010 to 4.7% as at February 2014. Essex
is using a real-time statistical approach to tracking NEET
young people with a view to matching them to available
opportunities and support. The average lifetime cost of a
NEET is estimated as £160k in benefits costs and lost
earnings. This demonstrates the importance of early
intervention.
Enhancing provision
75.
Under the leadership of the ESB, Essex partners will
 provide clear pathways from learning to employment by
establishing employer-led skills provisions, including
programmes for training; the provision of information,
advice and guidance; and skills brokerage; and
24
 invest in a portfolio of capital projects that will cement
Essex’s competitive advantage in key sectors and positions
its skills infrastructure to support future growth.
76.
apprenticeships at all levels in STEM sectors to meet skills
shortages.
 improved employer-led Skills Brokerage to simplify
recruitment and skills development at all levels for SMEs
(e.g. GTA, Guilds, etc.) promoting work placements,
apprenticeships, graduate level internships – to increase the
supply of skills to STEM sectors.
Taken together our plans will ensure employer-led skills
provision, targeted towards Essex’s key growth sectors. They
will continue to push the boundaries of what can be delivered
within the existing employment and skills system to ensure
provision better reflects needs in the economy.
77.
The Essex ESB also invest in improving employer-led
infrastructure to provide clearer engagement routes for
employers to ensure a better match between skills supply and
recruitment demand through the SELEP-wide Supporting
Workforce Skills Portal.
78.
The ESB will also work with local partners, and through the
SELEP, to realise our ambitions for deploying European Social
Fund (ESF). The ESB will commission EU funded activity,
matched pound for pound by a combination of national opt ins,
local private, public and third sector contributions. This will
deliver:
 enhanced Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) provision
to help young people and adults make informed training,
qualification and career choices through local industry-led
engagement programmes e.g. STEM Industry in Schools
project.
 an up-skilling of the Essex workforce through bespoke
employer-led higher level skills training for employers,
including leadership and management skills training. This
aims to improve employer competitiveness and productivity,
enables individuals to progress in work, thereby potentially
increasing new employment opportunities. We will also
support retraining for adults wishing to acquire STEMrelated skills.
 a series of activities aimed at increasing social inclusion,
smoothing transitions to work, and reducing youth
unemployment. Support will include work experience,
interventions for 15-19 year olds to reduce early entrants
into the benefits system, on-going support for employers
and job entrants and soft skills support packages to promote
participation, access and retention.
79.
We envisage that this activity will be delivered with the support
of £27m of EU funding, matched 1:1 by a combination of
national opt ins (£18.07m), private investment (£6.7m) local
 increases in the number of apprenticeships and other
vocational provision, by stimulating demand from employers
through financial incentives to increase the number of
25
Co-investing with government
56. While our investment proposals require financial support from
HM Government, securing sustainable growth across our county
will require Ministers and Whitehall departments to do more
than devolve funding. Our Economic Plan for Essex treats HM
Government as an equal and active partner in the Essex
economy. We are, therefore, looking to Ministers to shape
national policy and practice to help enable local growth and, in
so doing, secure an economic return for the UK as a whole.
57. As we bring forward transport investments, we will be asking HM
Government to:
 commit to deliver specific national rail and road
investment by agreed dates.
We will be asking HM Government to make firm
commitments to deliver specific national rail network,
motorway, and national trunk road investments by agreed
dates. These are funded through Network Rail, Highways
Agency and other national budgets, and include:
-
the Lower Thames Crossing;
a comprehensive solution to the lack of capacity at
Junction 30/31 of the M25;
corridor improvements on the A12, A120 and M11
(including Junction 7a);
works at Brentwood and Shenfield Stations to
support Crossrail development;
capacity improvements and integrated transport
initiatives on the Great Eastern Mainline (GEML),
-
-
West Anglia Mainline (WAML) (including 4
tracking) and opportunities offered by Crossrail 2;
exploring a smart card travel system for rail and
bus travel in the Essex, Southend and Thurrock;
investment in the London Underground Central
Line and rolling stock, including station travel
planning and interchange enhancements at Epping,
Loughton, Buckhurst Hill, Chigwell and Roding
Valley Stations; and
use of the Network Rail National Journey Time
Reduction Fund to invest in measures that would
allow for increased speeds on the GEML.
We are also asking that Network Rail works proactively
with Essex County Council and Chelmsford City Council on
the improvements needed to bring about a new station at
Beaulieu Park and improved track capacity in the
Chelmsford area.
We will also be asking HM Government to upgrade
stretches of the A13 in neighbouring Thurrock and in Essex
to serve the new deep sea container port at London
Gateway and to fully realise the potential of DP World’s
investment. This road is not currently in the stewardship
of the Highways Agency. These national network
improvements are fundamental to the future prosperity of
Essex and the nation as a whole.
 Devolve Highways Agency responsibilities to local
highways authorities.
18
83.
84.
 formal recognition of the role of the ESB in leading and
shaping a higher value system of skills and employment
provision;
The capital investment that partners propose for developing and
enhancing the college estate and is contained within the tables
in the Growth Locations section of this document.
To deliver these projects, we have requested a minimum of
£13.8m from HM Government through the SLGF. We anticipate
that this would be matched with funding from local and other
partners of some £31.15 million. Overall, Essex partners are
working with others across the SELEP area to secure £128m of
capital funding to invest in skills infrastructure over the years to
2021.
 support (financially and practical) for the mechanisms the
ESB wants to put in place in order to help create a more
employer responsive system; and
 freedoms and flexibility to allow local determination of the
skills programmes commissioned in Essex against clear,
measureable outcomes.
88.
Reinventing the skills system to unlock growth
85.
86.
87.
 enable the Essex ESB, in partnership with the sector guilds to
determine the use of Essex’s share of SELEP’s £4.3million per
year adult skills budget, in order to address skills shortages
in priority sectors. This ask is with providers’ agreement and
would support moves towards employer-led skills provision;
Having considered what the ESB can do within the existing skills
and employment support system, Essex partners – and wider
partners across the SELEP area – are keen to exert greater local
influence over, and reshape the local delivery of, national skills
programmes.
As national funding for adult skills programmes is reduced (as
part of wider public spending reductions) targeting scarce
resources to deliver our growth aspirations will be imperative.
To deliver a transformational impact Essex partners seek greater
flexibilities and local determination over skills spending. This
includes the redeployment of mainstream funding to roll out
successful employer-led skills pilots championed by the ESB.
Essex partners, together with others across the SELEP area, are
seeking:
We have therefore joined with partners across the SELEP to ask
HM Government to:
 redeploy unspent national initiatives funding, such as Youth
Contract and current ESF projects to fund local projects that
support SELEP priorities; and
 commit to local determination and co-commissioning of
European Social Funding to ensure it will deliver local
priorities.
89.
With these freedoms and flexibilities we believe that we can
achieve a significant improvement in skills and employability
outcomes in Essex. We are working on the specific targets and
27
outcomes both locally and across the SELEP area, but for Essex
we estimate that over the period 2014 to 2020, we can:
 significantly increase the number of businesses, particularly
smaller businesses, engaged in skills development of current
workforce and bringing on new entrants;
 increase the number of young learners undertaking
vocational STEM subjects and entering key industries in
order to address skills shortages;
 increase participation and significantly reduce the number
of 16-18 NEET young people and 19-24 year old
unemployed;
 exceed the England average for basic literacy and numeracy
skills amongst our adult population and increase
participation in higher skills acquisition; and
 work in a much more efficient way with other publically
funded organisations to deliver an improved, value-formoney service to employers and residents.
Growth locations
This section provides detail of partners’ proposals to deliver
growth-enabling infrastructure in Essex’s key growth corridors.
90. Covering an area more than twice the size of Greater London,
Essex has diverse strengths and is positioned to exploit an
equally diverse range of opportunities. To the south we are part
28
of the Thames Gateway, the largest regeneration area in Europe.
To the north, there are important links with Suffolk via the
Haven Gateway. The west of the county is part of the LondonStansted-Cambridge Corridor (LSCC); and in the heart of Essex,
the city of Chelmsford provides an important regional centre.
The county provides an excellent location for business links and
commuting to London, and key international links via the London
Gateway and Harwich ports, and Stansted and Southend
Airports.
91. Essex is a diverse county where the economic potential is not
restricted to our towns and cities. Many of our residents live in
rural villages and coastal towns. Our coastal towns, particularly
in the Haven Gateway, face a number of socio-economic
challenges, with deprivation levels above the national average,
low levels of economic activity and comparatively low
proportions of employment in higher skilled occupations. This
makes it even more important that we capitalise on the
economic opportunities to attract investment into these areas
and increase economic activity. Through SELEP, the Coastal
Communities Group is working on interventions to promote
growth in these areas and intervene on key issues such as the
housing market in coastal towns.
92. Three quarters of Essex’s land area is given over to food
production and processing, and the rural areas of the county are
also home to a wide range of small businesses from creative
media through design to event catering. Proximity to London,
the coast and international airports makes rural Essex an ideal
location for business growth, provided the right market and
planning conditions exist. Road links are generally good and
while there are some issues relating to road capacity, public
transport links and high residential property prices, commercial
rents in rural Essex are an attractive alternative to town and city
centre locations, along with the quality of life in these working
environments.
Transport
93. Investment in transport is at the heart of our plans to achieve
growth, and there is clear evidence that a comprehensive and
efficient transport system is an important enabler of sustained
economic prosperity. We know that delays and unreliability on
the network have direct costs to people and businesses,
increasing business costs and affecting productivity and
innovation. With much of the travel that takes place within the
county influenced by transport assets of a national nature,
ensuring that they operate efficiently is critical not just to Essex,
but to the UK economy as a whole.
94. Essex’s transport assets also act as economic drivers in their
own right, and include the airports and ports mentioned above,
as well as nationally important trunk roads (M25, M11, A12, and
A120) and nationally important rail networks (Great Eastern
Main Line, West Anglia Main Line, Essex Thameside and the
London Underground Central Line). It will be vital to ensure that
effective co-ordination and planning takes place to target
investment in a way that provides the stimulus to the creation of
jobs and homes.
29
95. Essex is applying an incremental approach to ensuring that our
infrastructure networks are fit for purpose and support
economic growth. This entails:
 prioritising the maintenance and smarter use of our
existing infrastructure networks;
 making targeted investments to address local network
stress points and local network development; and
 promoting larger scale projects where these are required
to most effectively underpin economic growth.
96. The full list of transport schemes that we want to see delivered
in Essex is attached as Annex A. Map 1 (see below) also provides
an overview of the national road and rail transport schemes that
are of strategic importance to Essex and our growth corridors.
land and assets in their ownership to better manage their
estates and bring forward surplus assets for
redevelopment. Central to Essex’s pilot work has been the
design and use of the Essex Property Asset Map (EPAM). EPAM
allows partners, for the first time, to view the majority of public
property holdings in any area in Essex, allowing them to identify
rationalisation opportunities.
99. This identification of land is feeding into the Housing and Public
Sector Land project which is being taken forward through the
Whole Essex Community Budget programme, this has seen
public sector partners working together to develop a new
operational model to bring forward public sector land and
buildings to address the housing needs of residents.
Housing
97. Housing is of fundamental importance for the effective
functioning of the local economy, with ample supply of good
quality housing for rent and for sale required in all segments of
the local market. This is critical to meet the needs of those living
and working in Essex, and to make the area an attractive location
for businesses. The shortage of good quality affordable housing
to meet current and projected demand, a lack of available
development land, and reluctance from private sector
developers to build on available land are all issues that we need
to address.
98. As a leading pilot area in the governments One Public Estates
pilot scheme, Essex authorities are actively identifying public
30
Map 1: National road and rail schemes of strategic importance to Essex’s growth corridors
31
Broadband
100. Given the pressures on Essex’s transport system, local partners
have sought to exploit the potential of enhanced
telecommunications infrastructure as a means to prevent
unnecessary journeys. This will have a wider impact on growth
and productivity, as better broadband connectivity will facilitate
greater efficiencies through improved business processes,
transportation and supply chain efficiencies, as well as reducing
the environmental impact of economic activity.
101. Investment in broadband also has the potential to reduce
reliance on high-carbon transportation by enabling greater
opportunity for remote and flexible working, and improving
connectivity in some of Essex’s more remote and isolated areas.
Better broadband access will make it easier for businesses across
all areas of Essex to reduce costs and sell goods and services
across global markets.
102. A £25m programme of public/private investment has been
approved through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) to roll-out
superfast broadband infrastructure across much of Essex. This is
part of the wider Superfast Essex project, which will bring
improved and superfast broadband to homes and businesses
across the county. However, the BDUK project will only extend
to approximately 87% of Essex. Further funding is required to
address the remaining 13% of households. Partners are exploring
a number of potential avenues to deliver this investment,
including using local authority budgets and leveraging private
sector funding.
Infrastructure development pipeline
103. Essex partners have identified a pipeline of transport and
property infrastructure projects that will unlock opportunities for
new housing and jobs across our county, increase productivity,
and support the development of Essex’s workforce. To ensure
that these projects can be effectively delivered, local partners
have committed to:
 ‘in principle’ use of over £100m of resources from local
authorities across Essex to increase the speed with which
development projects get off the ground and the likelihood
of levering in additional support; and using this to
 secure a pipeline of transport and property infrastructure
development worth £1bn by 2021, on the projects
identified and the further projects they unlock.
104. To help overcome some of the barriers to physical development
partners also propose to:
 create a major infrastructure delivery unit to bring
together capacity across a range of public services;
 underpin the work of this unit by developing a single
infrastructure plan for the county;
 develop an Essex Planning Compact – a series of collective
commitments to deliver planning decisions faster and to
offer other customer-focussed support to large planning
applications; and
 develop an Essex Property Partnership Board which can
work with the delivery unit to support the use of local
32
authorities’ assets to incentivise investment on a projectby-project basis.
In addition to this, partners propose to highlight the
opportunities that Essex offers to potential investors, by
preparing a prospectus for all major development opportunities
in the county.
South East Fund
105. To fund the property infrastructure component of our
development pipeline, Essex partners have agreed to participate
in the new South East Fund (SEFUND) with partners from across
the wider SELEP area.
106. The concept of SEFUND has been developed as a real estate
investment fund that will lever in substantial new sums of
private, public and EU funding to invest in the provision of high
quality infrastructure. On the basis of the seed capital from the
SELEP Growing Places Fund, Local Growth Fund investment and
contributions from our local authorities, it is conservatively
estimated that this will unlock £4.9bn of local authority and
private investment across the SELEP area and give SEFUND a
total financing reach of at least £5.2bn by March 2021.
107. As part of this proposal Essex County Council, together with local
authority partners in Kent, Medway, East Sussex, Southend and
Thurrock have made an “in principle” commitment to provide
up to £250m over the six years to 2021 to match SEFUND
investments in real estate development projects. Essex County
Council’s Cabinet have already made a commitment of up to
£115m. We envisage that district and borough council’s
investment in SEFUND projects will further increase local
authority investment.
108. SEFUND will be a largely recyclable fund for investment in real
estate development projects which could be financially viable if
they were able to attract initiating finance. Such projects are
untenable in the current illiquid investment market. SEFUND will
either accelerate delivery of existing schemes, or alternatively
secure delivery of schemes which would otherwise not have
occurred at all. All SEFUND investments will need to be
compliant with State Aid legislation.
109. To support SEFUND, Essex partners – and other partners across
the SELEP area - will be asking HM Government to provide seed
capital of £331m from the SLGF over the next six years, recycled
monies from the Growing Places Fund, and £17m from ERDF.
This will unlock further private and European investment.
Targeting investment in Essex’s growth corridors
110. Achieving our ambition for the whole of Essex depends upon
providing the right conditions for growth and focusing
investment in specific strategic locations – our ‘Growth
locations’. But to maximise the impact of investment, our
Growth locations need to be supported with appropriate
infrastructure that will give firms the confidence to invest. This
includes fit for purpose business premises, efficient and effective
transport infrastructure, utilities, and communications networks.
111. Based on partners’ deep and shared understanding of Essex’s
economic geography and infrastructure, we believe that by
33
83.
84.
 formal recognition of the role of the ESB in leading and
shaping a higher value system of skills and employment
provision;
The capital investment that partners propose for developing and
enhancing the college estate and is contained within the tables
in the Growth Locations section of this document.
To deliver these projects, we have requested a minimum of
£13.8m from HM Government through the SLGF. We anticipate
that this would be matched with funding from local and other
partners of some £31.15 million. Overall, Essex partners are
working with others across the SELEP area to secure £128m of
capital funding to invest in skills infrastructure over the years to
2021.
 support (financially and practical) for the mechanisms the
ESB wants to put in place in order to help create a more
employer responsive system; and
 freedoms and flexibility to allow local determination of the
skills programmes commissioned in Essex against clear,
measureable outcomes.
88.
Reinventing the skills system to unlock growth
85.
86.
87.
 enable the Essex ESB, in partnership with the sector guilds to
determine the use of Essex’s share of SELEP’s £4.3million per
year adult skills budget, in order to address skills shortages
in priority sectors. This ask is with providers’ agreement and
would support moves towards employer-led skills provision;
Having considered what the ESB can do within the existing skills
and employment support system, Essex partners – and wider
partners across the SELEP area – are keen to exert greater local
influence over, and reshape the local delivery of, national skills
programmes.
As national funding for adult skills programmes is reduced (as
part of wider public spending reductions) targeting scarce
resources to deliver our growth aspirations will be imperative.
To deliver a transformational impact Essex partners seek greater
flexibilities and local determination over skills spending. This
includes the redeployment of mainstream funding to roll out
successful employer-led skills pilots championed by the ESB.
Essex partners, together with others across the SELEP area, are
seeking:
We have therefore joined with partners across the SELEP to ask
HM Government to:
 redeploy unspent national initiatives funding, such as Youth
Contract and current ESF projects to fund local projects that
support SELEP priorities; and
 commit to local determination and co-commissioning of
European Social Funding to ensure it will deliver local
priorities.
89.
With these freedoms and flexibilities we believe that we can
achieve a significant improvement in skills and employability
outcomes in Essex. We are working on the specific targets and
27
outcomes both locally and across the SELEP area, but for Essex
we estimate that over the period 2014 to 2020, we can:
 significantly increase the number of businesses, particularly
smaller businesses, engaged in skills development of current
workforce and bringing on new entrants;
 increase the number of young learners undertaking
vocational STEM subjects and entering key industries in
order to address skills shortages;
 increase participation and significantly reduce the number
of 16-18 NEET young people and 19-24 year old
unemployed;
 exceed the England average for basic literacy and numeracy
skills amongst our adult population and increase
participation in higher skills acquisition; and
 work in a much more efficient way with other publically
funded organisations to deliver an improved, value-formoney service to employers and residents.
Growth locations
This section provides detail of partners’ proposals to deliver
growth-enabling infrastructure in Essex’s key growth corridors.
90. Covering an area more than twice the size of Greater London,
Essex has diverse strengths and is positioned to exploit an
equally diverse range of opportunities. To the south we are part
28
of the Thames Gateway, the largest regeneration area in Europe.
To the north, there are important links with Suffolk via the
Haven Gateway. The west of the county is part of the LondonStansted-Cambridge Corridor (LSCC); and in the heart of Essex,
the city of Chelmsford provides an important regional centre.
The county provides an excellent location for business links and
commuting to London, and key international links via the London
Gateway and Harwich ports, and Stansted and Southend
Airports.
91. Essex is a diverse county where the economic potential is not
restricted to our towns and cities. Many of our residents live in
rural villages and coastal towns. Our coastal towns, particularly
in the Haven Gateway, face a number of socio-economic
challenges, with deprivation levels above the national average,
low levels of economic activity and comparatively low
proportions of employment in higher skilled occupations. This
makes it even more important that we capitalise on the
economic opportunities to attract investment into these areas
and increase economic activity. Through SELEP, the Coastal
Communities Group is working on interventions to promote
growth in these areas and intervene on key issues such as the
housing market in coastal towns.
92. Three quarters of Essex’s land area is given over to food
production and processing, and the rural areas of the county are
also home to a wide range of small businesses from creative
media through design to event catering. Proximity to London,
the coast and international airports makes rural Essex an ideal
location for business growth, provided the right market and
planning conditions exist. Road links are generally good and
while there are some issues relating to road capacity, public
transport links and high residential property prices, commercial
rents in rural Essex are an attractive alternative to town and city
centre locations, along with the quality of life in these working
environments.
Transport
93. Investment in transport is at the heart of our plans to achieve
growth, and there is clear evidence that a comprehensive and
efficient transport system is an important enabler of sustained
economic prosperity. We know that delays and unreliability on
the network have direct costs to people and businesses,
increasing business costs and affecting productivity and
innovation. With much of the travel that takes place within the
county influenced by transport assets of a national nature,
ensuring that they operate efficiently is critical not just to Essex,
but to the UK economy as a whole.
94. Essex’s transport assets also act as economic drivers in their
own right, and include the airports and ports mentioned above,
as well as nationally important trunk roads (M25, M11, A12, and
A120) and nationally important rail networks (Great Eastern
Main Line, West Anglia Main Line, Essex Thameside and the
London Underground Central Line). It will be vital to ensure that
effective co-ordination and planning takes place to target
investment in a way that provides the stimulus to the creation of
jobs and homes.
29
Map 1: National road and rail schemes of strategic importance to Essex’s growth corridors
31
Haven Gateway Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Transport Package
accessibility to growth areas by mix of modes
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
A12 access slips and improved access around Stanway
(B1022 - Heckford bridge) and Beerchurch Hall Road
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
B1022 Colchester to Maldon
Route based Strategy
Colchester Stanway Pinch
Point package
A137 Colchester to
Manningtree Route Based
Strategy
A1124 Colchester to Halsted
Route Based Strategy
A134, Colchester to Sudbury
Route Based Strategy
TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
4
2
2
12
10
8
3
4
Private
Other
Jobs
created
Homes
created
437
0
437
1800
5
754
665
2
2
754
665
4
2
2
754
665
137.5
88.9
32.6
24,093
28,538
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
1122
541
30
505
300
0
2
10
6
Table 2: SEFUND projects within the A120 Haven Gateway Corridor
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Panfield Lane Innovation
and Enterprise Business
Park
Town Centre Improvements
(Braintree Town Centre
Regeneration)
Harwich Supply Based
Limited
Brief description
Full cost
(£m)
Local
authority
SLGF
Mixed use development west of Braintree, including
new homes and a new employment site.
42
2
Regeneration project on a 0.7 ha site comprising an
existing bus station and community centre.
20
5
1
Development of a small boat harbour at Gas House
Creek with facilities that will service the requirements of
3.5
2.25
1.25
Private
Other
40
14
38
Broadband
100. Given the pressures on Essex’s transport system, local partners
have sought to exploit the potential of enhanced
telecommunications infrastructure as a means to prevent
unnecessary journeys. This will have a wider impact on growth
and productivity, as better broadband connectivity will facilitate
greater efficiencies through improved business processes,
transportation and supply chain efficiencies, as well as reducing
the environmental impact of economic activity.
101. Investment in broadband also has the potential to reduce
reliance on high-carbon transportation by enabling greater
opportunity for remote and flexible working, and improving
connectivity in some of Essex’s more remote and isolated areas.
Better broadband access will make it easier for businesses across
all areas of Essex to reduce costs and sell goods and services
across global markets.
102. A £25m programme of public/private investment has been
approved through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) to roll-out
superfast broadband infrastructure across much of Essex. This is
part of the wider Superfast Essex project, which will bring
improved and superfast broadband to homes and businesses
across the county. However, the BDUK project will only extend
to approximately 87% of Essex. Further funding is required to
address the remaining 13% of households. Partners are exploring
a number of potential avenues to deliver this investment,
including using local authority budgets and leveraging private
sector funding.
Infrastructure development pipeline
103. Essex partners have identified a pipeline of transport and
property infrastructure projects that will unlock opportunities for
new housing and jobs across our county, increase productivity,
and support the development of Essex’s workforce. To ensure
that these projects can be effectively delivered, local partners
have committed to:
 ‘in principle’ use of over £100m of resources from local
authorities across Essex to increase the speed with which
development projects get off the ground and the likelihood
of levering in additional support; and using this to
 secure a pipeline of transport and property infrastructure
development worth £1bn by 2021, on the projects
identified and the further projects they unlock.
104. To help overcome some of the barriers to physical development
partners also propose to:
 create a major infrastructure delivery unit to bring
together capacity across a range of public services;
 underpin the work of this unit by developing a single
infrastructure plan for the county;
 develop an Essex Planning Compact – a series of collective
commitments to deliver planning decisions faster and to
offer other customer-focussed support to large planning
applications; and
 develop an Essex Property Partnership Board which can
work with the delivery unit to support the use of local
32
authorities’ assets to incentivise investment on a projectby-project basis.
In addition to this, partners propose to highlight the
opportunities that Essex offers to potential investors, by
preparing a prospectus for all major development opportunities
in the county.
South East Fund
105. To fund the property infrastructure component of our
development pipeline, Essex partners have agreed to participate
in the new South East Fund (SEFUND) with partners from across
the wider SELEP area.
106. The concept of SEFUND has been developed as a real estate
investment fund that will lever in substantial new sums of
private, public and EU funding to invest in the provision of high
quality infrastructure. On the basis of the seed capital from the
SELEP Growing Places Fund, Local Growth Fund investment and
contributions from our local authorities, it is conservatively
estimated that this will unlock £4.9bn of local authority and
private investment across the SELEP area and give SEFUND a
total financing reach of at least £5.2bn by March 2021.
107. As part of this proposal Essex County Council, together with local
authority partners in Kent, Medway, East Sussex, Southend and
Thurrock have made an “in principle” commitment to provide
up to £250m over the six years to 2021 to match SEFUND
investments in real estate development projects. Essex County
Council’s Cabinet have already made a commitment of up to
£115m. We envisage that district and borough council’s
investment in SEFUND projects will further increase local
authority investment.
108. SEFUND will be a largely recyclable fund for investment in real
estate development projects which could be financially viable if
they were able to attract initiating finance. Such projects are
untenable in the current illiquid investment market. SEFUND will
either accelerate delivery of existing schemes, or alternatively
secure delivery of schemes which would otherwise not have
occurred at all. All SEFUND investments will need to be
compliant with State Aid legislation.
109. To support SEFUND, Essex partners – and other partners across
the SELEP area - will be asking HM Government to provide seed
capital of £331m from the SLGF over the next six years, recycled
monies from the Growing Places Fund, and £17m from ERDF.
This will unlock further private and European investment.
Targeting investment in Essex’s growth corridors
110. Achieving our ambition for the whole of Essex depends upon
providing the right conditions for growth and focusing
investment in specific strategic locations – our ‘Growth
locations’. But to maximise the impact of investment, our
Growth locations need to be supported with appropriate
infrastructure that will give firms the confidence to invest. This
includes fit for purpose business premises, efficient and effective
transport infrastructure, utilities, and communications networks.
111. Based on partners’ deep and shared understanding of Essex’s
economic geography and infrastructure, we believe that by
33
focusing development on the county’s strategic corridors we can
achieve the greatest economic outcomes. This targeted
approach allows us to build on partners’ previous successes and
current investment commitments’, make use of established
delivery and governance structures; and to maximise growth
whilst securing best value for public money.
112. These strategic growth corridors in which Essex partners will
target investment are set out below.
Growth Corridors: A120 - Haven Gateway
113. The Haven Gateway Growth Corridor includes the districts of
Braintree, Colchester and Tendring, and links Harwich
International Port in the east to Stansted Airport and the M11 in
the west via the A120. It is one of the key international gateways
to the UK; home to Harwich International Port, one of the UK’s
leading multi-purpose freight and passenger ports, and
supporting the neighbouring port of Felixstowe.
114. The growth opportunities astride the A120 are in Braintree,
Colchester district and Tendring and are generated both from
ready access to Stansted Airport and the ports of Harwich and
Felixstowe. We see distinctive investment opportunities in low
carbon and renewables sectors, offshore wind energy,
manufacturing, and logistics. The University of Essex Knowledge
Gateway will provide a world class resource to support the use
of data analytics and data science by a range of businesses
creating 2,000 high value jobs. Work to develop the Tendring
Europark site at Horsley Cross will enable the creation of a new
industrial park with potential for hundreds of new jobs. The
Harwich Supply Base project and an Energy Skills Centre in
Harwich will help support the low carbon and renewables sector.
Planned developments, such as Pond Hall Farm, and the major
port development at Bathside Bay in the longer term will also
help to unlock further growth around the Haven Ports to 2021
and beyond.
115. Colchester already has a track record of delivering the highest
number of new homes within SELEP, and will accommodate
significant future growth. Development is planned for the town
centre and the Northern Gateway creating a new
leisure/sporting hub and leveraging £60m of private investment.
A digital incubation centre for the creative industries in the heart
of Colchester will support this priority sector. The development
of a STEM training centre will help raise local skills to support
priority sectors across the Corridor.
116. At present the Corridor’s growth potential is limited by capacity
on the A120. The development of the A120, particularly dualling
key sections will dramatically improve access along the corridor,
unlocking growth and enabling both Harwich and Stansted to
realise their economic potential.
117. In addition, within this corridor there are significant long-term
opportunities for growth, and it will be important to ensure that
Essex and its partners continue to lobby for and promote these
opportunities. Once the A120 works are completed, this will
dramatically improve connections along the corridor and there
will be potential to develop further sites and expand existing
locations, taking advantage of proximity to Stansted, Harwich
34
and Colchester. Furthermore, in Harwich, the proposals to
develop Bathside Bay, a £300m container terminal scheme,
would support the offshore wind cluster based at Harwich.
Requests to Government to grant Assisted Area Status to
Tendring and make Harwich a Centre for Offshore Renewables
(CORE) location would significantly increase the future
investment potential in the area if granted.
Our plans for Growth
118. We have identified investment opportunities in the Haven
Gateway Growth Corridor, along with key transport
infrastructure improvements, that will help to realise the
economic potential across this area. These are displayed on the
map below, and the projects are summarised in tables 1 -3
below.
In total, our plans for the A120 - Haven Gateway Growth Corridor
will enable 32,246 homes and 29,075 jobs by 2021. To unlock this
growth potential, local authorities will invest £47.6m, matched with
£67.4m of external funding. We are requesting £129.6m of SLGF to
match this investment. Together, this will leverage approximately
£90.5m of private sector investment.
35
Haven Gateway Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Transport Package
accessibility to growth areas by mix of modes
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
A12 access slips and improved access around Stanway
(B1022 - Heckford bridge) and Beerchurch Hall Road
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
B1022 Colchester to Maldon
Route based Strategy
Colchester Stanway Pinch
Point package
A137 Colchester to
Manningtree Route Based
Strategy
A1124 Colchester to Halsted
Route Based Strategy
A134, Colchester to Sudbury
Route Based Strategy
TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
4
2
2
12
10
8
3
4
Private
Other
Jobs
created
Homes
created
437
0
437
1800
5
754
665
2
2
754
665
4
2
2
754
665
137.5
88.9
32.6
24,093
28,538
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
1122
541
30
505
300
0
2
10
6
Table 2: SEFUND projects within the A120 Haven Gateway Corridor
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Panfield Lane Innovation
and Enterprise Business
Park
Town Centre Improvements
(Braintree Town Centre
Regeneration)
Harwich Supply Based
Limited
Brief description
Full cost
(£m)
Local
authority
SLGF
Mixed use development west of Braintree, including
new homes and a new employment site.
42
2
Regeneration project on a 0.7 ha site comprising an
existing bus station and community centre.
20
5
1
Development of a small boat harbour at Gas House
Creek with facilities that will service the requirements of
3.5
2.25
1.25
Private
Other
40
14
38
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
240
0
162
0
840
0
37
1002
255
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
2.5
1.5
1
8
4
43
1.55
44
7
10
4
2
4
468
2203
4.6
2.4
2
0.2
198
0
0.5
0.15
0.15
0.2
258
0
9.35
4.8
2.2
0.2
56
78
10
6
4
306
126
197.45
40.65
15.05
4,982
3,708
Private
Other
the offshore energy sector.
Witham Enterprise Centre
Knowledge Gateway Innovation Centre
Skyline 120 Phase 2
Pond Hall Farm - new substation required
Northern Gateway
Employment Area
Parkside Phases 1A and 2,
University of Essex,
Knowledge Gateway
Colchester NGA Broadband
for Business Parks
Colchester Town Centre
Growth Location
River Walls Improvements
Develop an Enterprise Centre in Witham as part of a
network of centres across Essex.
Construction of a 20,000 sq ft innovation centre to
create a regionally significant resource for the intensive
incubation of businesses linked to the University's
strengths in research.
Further development of the Skyline 120 commercial and
industrial site.
Site to be developed to provide a new residential, retail
and leisure destination for Harwich as well as providing
commercial land for employment uses.
Supports the development of land to the North of
Colchester Town as a leisure/sporting hub.
Construction of a further 21,200 sq ft of small office and
research and development units in response to the
success of phase 1.
Deliver Next Generation Access (NGA) broadband (30
Mbps and above) to business parks in Colchester
Borough to meet enterprise needs for high speed,
reliable connectivity.
Activities to make Colchester a hub for culture, heritage
and creativity, building on the success of the firstsite art
gallery.
Enabling work to allow development along King Edward
Quay to the south of the river.
TOTAL
4
1.45
40
80.4
2.15
61.35
Table 3: Skills projects within the A120 Haven Gateway Corridor
39
Haven Gateway Growth Corridor Skills Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
STEM at Braintree College
STEM at Braintree College
TOTAL
OVERALL TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
5.5
Local
authority
Private
Other
3.75
0.5
1.25
5.5
3.75
0.5
1.25
340.45
133.3
90.9
68.6
47.65
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
29,075
32,246
40
Growth Corridors: A12 and Great Eastern mainline Heart of Essex
119.The Heart of Essex growth corridor runs through the centre of
Essex, linking London to the Haven ports, and onwards to
Norfolk and Suffolk. The A12 and the Great Eastern Main Line
(GEML) rail services link the key urban centres of Brentwood,
Chelmsford, Colchester and Maldon. The corridor has strong
links with the London labour market, supporting substantial
commuter flows to and from the capital. These links will grow
and strengthen as Crossrail is completed, when new services will
stop at Brentwood and Shenfield, both of which will benefit from
planned improvement works to facilitate these new services.
120.There are significant growth initiatives and new business
developments within the City of Chelmsford, supported by city
centre public realm improvements, Chelmer Waterside, an
integrated transport package and a new railway station in north
Chelmsford (Beaulieu Park). Flood prevention work will also play
an important role in protecting existing and new developments
(in particular Chelmer Waterside). Chelmsford is a major centre
for higher education and secondary education and will also be
host to the Chelmsford Innovation Centre (MedBIC), one of the
Anglia Ruskin Med Tech campuses, supporting the growing life
sciences and health care sector.
employer-led STEM & Enterprise Skills Centre in Maldon, which
will provide training and apprenticeships in STEM sectors to
develop a pipeline of skilled labour to improve the productivity
of local firms and enable the expansion of advanced
manufacturing.
122.Additional investment in rail and road infrastructure is essential
for unlocking the full economic potential of the Corridor, and a
package of investment is proposed to address bottlenecks on the
A12 to support growth.
Plans for Growth
123.We have identified investment opportunities in the Heart of
Essex Growth Corridor, along with key transport infrastructure
improvements, that will help to realise the economic potential
across this area. These are displayed on the map below, and the
projects are summarised in tables 4 to 6.
124.Within the Heart of Essex Growth Corridor we will enable an
additional 15,514 homes and 19,104 jobs by 2021. To unlock
this growth potential, local authorities will invest £23.8m,
matched with £15.7m of external funding. We are requesting
£79m of SLGF to match this investment. Together, this will
leverage in approximately £59.1m of private sector investment.
121.Brentwood and Maldon also make significant contributions to
the Essex economy in a number of sectors, notably
manufacturing and life sciences. Identified growth plans include
the Causeway regeneration programme and significant new
homes which require improvements to key routes such as the
Heybridge Relief Road. We are leading the development of an
41
Map 3: A12 and Great Eastern Main Line - Heart of Essex Corridor
Key
Transport
SEFUND
ID
Name
ID
Name
027
Causeway Regeneration Programme
035
Flood Prevention
028
Maldon Pinch Point Programme
036
Chelmer Waterside
029
A414 Maldon to Chelmsford Route Based Strategy
037
City Centre Public Realm
030
North Chelmsford Package/Beaulieu Park
038
Shenfield Station Improvements
031
Chelmsford City Pinch Point Package - Access to Waterside
039
Brentwood Station Improvements
032
Chelmsford City Pinch Point Package - Ring Loop
051
ARU MedTech Campus Site
033
Heart of Essex Integrated Transport Package
053
A131 Chelmsford to Braintree Route Based Strategy
034
Chelmsford City Integrated Transport Package
42
Table 7: Transport projects within the M11 - London Stansted Cambridge Corridor
London Stansted Cambridge Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
M11 J7a Pinch Point Package: M11
J7a Harlow
M11 J7a Pinch Point Package: M11
corridor junction 7 (A414 Harlow)
M11 J7a Harlow
M11 J8 Pinch Point Package
A414 Route Based Strategy, Harlow
to Chelmsford
A414 Pinch Point Package:
Eastwick& Fifth Ave dualling & junc
improvements
A414 Pinch Point Package: A414
First Avenue & Cambridge Rd
junction
A414 Pinch Point Package:
Edinburgh Way & East Road junc &
approach improvements
Harlow Integrated Transport
Package
Harlow Town Centre pinch point
package
A104 and B1393 Loughton to
Epping route based strategy
Saffron Walden Integrated
Transport Package
TOTAL
M11 corridor junction 7 (A414 Harlow)
Improvements to local road links to junction 8
Jobs
Created
Homes
created
12
4293
6807
9
2295
2805
2295
2805
1440
525
1440
525
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
Private
47
30
5
10
1
1
1
Other
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
A414 Improvements Eastwick and Fifth Ave dualling
and junction improvements
8
4
20
5
A414/First Avenue & A414/Cambridge Road Junction
Improvements
5
5
1440
525
5.9
5.9
1440
525
12
5
825
900
5
5
825
900
8
4
4
499
1500
2
1
1
450
1250
123.9
66.9
21
17,242
19,067
A414 Edinburgh Way/East Road Junction and
approach Improvements
Harlow Integrated Transport Measures to aid
accessibility by mix of modes
A1025 2nd Avenue / Velizy Avenue Junction
Improvement
Highway asset renewal, traffic management,
congestion relief, cycling, safety & public transport
measures
Saffron Walden Integrated transport package
4
15
7
36
48
Table 8: Transport projects within the M11 London Stansted Cambridge Corridor
London Stansted Cambridge Corridor SEFUND Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Harlow EZ London Road Enabling
and Delivery
North Weald Airfield
Templeflieds Development Package
& Civic Amenity
Medtech Campus - Harlow
Brief description
This project will deliver a range of site acquisitions,
up front development work and enabling
infrastructure that will support the development of
the EZ and substantially de-risk the site for potential
investors/occupiers.
Development of homes and the creation of an
avionics hub for the south east of England.
Project to test the viability of creating a Business
Improvement District through a package of improvements to help leverage in investment in the area.
Development of the wider Medtech campus and the
innovation centre, providing business support as
well as development of incubator space.
TOTAL
Other
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
9.8
11.2
264
210
9
5
4
198
600
8
4
4
264
210
1
324
210
15.2
1,050
1,230
Other
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
18,292
20,297
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
21
2
40
19.8
Local
authority
Private
5
Table 9: Skills projects within the M11 London Stansted Cambridge Corridor
London Stansted Cambridge Corridor Skills Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Harlow Manufacturing &
Engineering Centre
Feasibility work is currently underway that will
examine the viability of a Group Training Association
based on the AM sector, to be located within the EZ.
TOTAL
OVERALL TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
6
3
3
6
3
3
169.9
89.7
26
Private
36
18.2
49
Table 4: Transport projects within the A12 and Great Eastern Main Line Heart of Essex Corridor
Heart of Essex Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Jobs
created
Homes
created
885
780
885
780
885
780
10
513
510
7
7
390
416
New rail station at north of Chelmsford – Beaulieu Park
34
12
4020
4002
A131 Chelmsford to Braintree
Route Based Strategy
Highway asset renewal, traffic management, congestion
relief, cycling, safety & public transport measures
8
4
4
1066
1000
A414 Maldon to Chelmsford
Route Based Strategy
Highway asset renewal, traffic management, congestion
relief, cycling, safety & public transport measures
4
2
2
1066
1300
Maldon Pinch Point
Programme
Heybridge Relief Rd
40
10
1066
2700
Shenfield station improvements
3.5
1.5
2700
0
2
2
2700
1800
140
68
16,176
14,068
Scheme location and name
Brief description
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
7.5
3
12
5
12
11.5
Access to Waterside (inc EGAR)
10
Widford Park and Ride
GEML capacity improvements
Chelmsford City Integrated
Transport Package
Heart of Essex Integrated
Transport Package
Chelmsford City Centre Pinch
Point Package:
Chelmsford City Centre Pinch
Point Package:
Chelmsford City Integrated
Transport Package
Shenfield station
improvements
Brentwood station
improvements
TOTAL
Chelmsford Station / station square / Mill Yard
Chelmsford Integrated Transport Package inc radial PT
routes
Chelmsford Traffic and Access Strategy (Ring and Loop)
(inc Army and Navy)
Brentwood station improvements
Local
authority
Private
Other
1.3
3.2
7
0.5
22
30
2
13
53.8
5.2
43
Table 5: SEFUND projects within the A12 and Great Eastern mainline Heart of Essex Corridor
Heart of Essex Growth Corridor SEFUND Investments
Scheme Location, Name and
Detail
Flood Prevention
Chelmer Waterside
City Centre public realm
ARU MedTech Campus site
Causeway Regeneration
Programme
Brief description
Strategic infrastructure priority to protect residential and
commercial properties from flooding along with key
development in the city centre
A key strategic site in the city centre that has potential to
deliver in the new homes and commercial development.
The public realm programme embraces the central area
of Chelmsford including the shopping area, transport
interchange, park entrances, rivers and key entrances into
the city centre. It will support increased investment in the
city, particularly in the retail sector.
This project is aimed at positioning Essex as a leading
location for the development of the medical technology
sector through a package of tailored business support and
the development of three MedTech Business Parks in
Chelmsford, Harlow and Southend.
Masterplan for redevelopment of industrial area and links
to the market town and Heybridge.
TOTAL
Investment
Local
Private
authority
Other
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
6.5
4.5
156
312
1.3
6
204
510
2.3
456
312
3
1998
312
114
0
2,928
1,446
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
19,104
15,514
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
13
2
10
2.7
5.5
3.2
8
3
2
1.1
0.1
1
37.6
11.0
10.8
5.3
10.5
Private
Other
Table 6: Skills projects within the A12 and Great Eastern mainline Heart of Essex Corridor
Heart of Essex Growth Corridor Skills Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
STEM & Enterprise Training Centre
STEM & Enterprise Training Centre, Maldon
OVERALL TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
1.45
SLGF
Local
authority
1.1
0.35
0.05
1.45
1.1
0.35
0.05
179.05
80.1
59.45
15.75
23.8
44
Growth Corridors: London-Stansted-Cambridge Corridor/ West
Essex (M11)
125. The west of Essex is part of the London-Stansted-Cambridge
Corridor (LSCC), connecting London, Stansted and Cambridge, via
the M11 and the West Anglia Main Line (WAML). The Corridor
has enormous growth potential, particularly in Harlow, building
on the local strengths in life sciences and other high value
sectors. In Stansted Airport, the LSCC has a key economic asset
with significant potential to catalyse growth across the corridor
and beyond. The airport is an important component of the Essex
economy and a major employment hub, currently employing
10,900 workers, over half (59%) of whom live in Essex. Stansted
Airport is a major freight transport asset, the fourth busiest in
the UK by passenger numbers, and has significant growth
potential with capacity to handle up to 45 million passengers per
annum.
126. The delivery of the Harlow Enterprise Zone (EZ) is underway with
the refurbishment of the Nortel complex. The EZ will attract
companies in life sciences, advanced manufacturing and
information and communications technologies (ICT) and has
capacity for over 5,000 jobs. The EZ will also be the home of one
of Anglia Ruskin’s new Med Tech campuses. The advanced
manufacturing sector in Harlow will be supported by
development of the Harlow Manufacturing and Engineering
Centre providing state of the art facilities to meet the skills
requirements of existing businesses and those investing in the
corridor.
127. In addition to the EZ there are many other opportunities for
growth in West Essex. This includes future housing
developments in Uttlesford, and developing projects such as
work focused on Lea Valley to support innovation in food
production and technology which will secure the future for the
industry and increase market share of specialist foods supply to
the capital.
128. Its close proximity to London has a powerful impact on the
whole of West Essex in relation to the economy, housing and
connectivity. This poses both challenges and opportunities for
the area. Epping Forest is served by the London Underground
Central Line, supporting not only commuters but business,
cultural and educational relationships. More widely, four
tracking of the West Anglia Mainline (WAML) along with
potential benefits of Crossrail 2 will further improve rail
connectivity in the area.
129. Several key transport investments are required to unlock full
growth potential. In particular, M11 Junction 7a is vital if the EZ
is to reach its full capacity and to enable significant housing
growth at Harlow. Investments in the A414 to address existing
bottlenecks are also essential.
Plans for Growth
130. We have identified investment opportunities in the West Essex
Growth Corridor, along with key transport infrastructure
improvements, that will help to realise the economic potential
45
Table 10: Transport projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor
TGSE Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Basildon Integrated Transport
Package
Access to Canvey and A129
Woodmans junction
A120 Pinch point - Improved access to Canvey
A127 Corridor
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
Basildon Integrated Transport Package
7.5
4
3.5
Basildon Integrated Transport Package
5.5
5
0.5
6
5
1
A129 Castle Point route based strategy
2.5
2
0.5
A127 Pinch point
17
15
2
5
3
2
2
1
1
4.8
4.4
0.4
A127 Route Management Strategy
A127 Route Management Strategy
Rochford Pinch point package Southend Airport JAAP
Local Sustainable Transport
Funding
Rochford Pinch point package - Southend Airport
JAAP
Rochford Pinch point package - Southend Airport
JAAP
2.2
1.6
Local Sustainable Transport Funding to provide an
efficient and recognised bus and train network
3
3
55.5
44
TOTAL
Private
Other
Jobs
Created
(directly)
Homes
created
(directly)
1192
2246
950
180
3384
9018
2688
468
8,214
11,912
0.6
11.5
Table 11: SEFUND projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor
53
TGSE Growth Corridor SEFUND Investments
Scheme Location, Name and
Detail
Canvey
Basildon Town Centre
Craylands and Fryerns
Investment
Brief description
Development of a Business and Enterprise Park and
development of the Knightswick Centre and
surrounding land.
Redevelopment of town centre and railway station
including the relocation of South Essex College’s
Basildon campus
Last phase of the transformation of the most
deprived housing estate in South East Essex
TOTAL
Homes
Created
SLGF
Local
authority
Private
90
4.5
2
83.5
475
90
120
5.5
114.5
596
1,123
32.8
6
26.8
289
128
242.8
16
248.8
1360
1341
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
9574
13253
2
Other
Jobs
Created
Full cost
(£m)
Table 12: Skills projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor
TGSE Growth Corridor Skills Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Bio and environmental tech
centre, Basildon
Bio and environmental tech centre, Basildon
OVERALL TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
32
6
26
32
6
26
330.3
66
13.5
Private
224.8
Other
26
54
The complementary programme of investment being led by partners in Southend and Thurrock is summarised below.
Table 13: Transport projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor to be delivered through complementary investment programmes in
Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
TGSE Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Southend and Rochford Growth
Area JAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth Area JAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth
Area SCAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth Area SCAAP
7.0
7.0
A127 Corridor
A127 Corridor
18.0
16.6
1.4
London Gateway/ Stanford-leHope
London Gateway/ Stanford-le-Hope
12.1
7.5
0.9
Grays Town Centre
Grays Town Centre
21.54
16.40
0.14
Thurrock Integrated Transport
Package
Thurrock Integrated Transport Package
6.2
2.0
Thurrock Cycling Network
Improvements
Thurrock Cycling Network Improvements
6.1
5.0
1.1
Thurrock Lakeside
Thurrock Lakeside
22.4
13.0
0.4
Thurrock Rail Package
Thurrock Rail Package
24.0
12.0
12.0
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
13.7
11.7
2.0
Jobs
Created
(directly)
Homes
created
(directly)
7380*
1768*
34104*
28391*
3.7
4400
700
5.0
2000
2607
0
0
0
0
1000
1100
16580
4200
Private
Other
4.2
9.0
TOTAL
131.0
91.1
18.0
17.7
4.2
65,464
38,766
*Note: where schemes appear within both the Essex and TGSE plan, a proportion of these figures are also reflected within the Essex investment tables above (table 10).
55
Table 14: SEFUND projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor to be delivered through complementary investment programmes in
Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
TGSE Growth Corridor SEFUND Investments
Investment
Scheme Location, Name and
Detail
Brief description
Southend and Rochford JAAP
Southend and Rochford JAAP
251.5
Southend and Rochford SCAAP
Southend and Rochford SCAAP
Thames Enterprise Centre
Private
investors
8.8
30.0
201.3
3690
0
57.9
6.8
8.7
40.0
4200
200
Thames Enterprise Centre
583.5
3.5
580.0
520
0
Purfleet
Purfleet
687.5
7.5
80.0
600.0
1500
2500
Tilbury
Tilbury
176.9
34.4
350
Grays Town Centre
4.5
4.3
1100
Grays Town Centre
181.4
68.7
30.0
450
400
11,460
3,450
1,830.4
SLGF
35.3
330.0
1,451.3
Other
Homes
Created
Local
partners
TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
Jobs
Created
56
Future development of growth projects
1.
The projects detailed in the tables above represent the model developed project proposals within partners’ investment pipeline and those
which are best placed to benefit from investment from the SLGF. However, over the life of this plan, partners anticipate the continued
development of their infrastructure pipeline. Across Essex’s growth corridors, there are further proposals that could, with further refinement
unlock jobs and housing growth. Partners across Essex will work together to develop these projects, and to identify the right investment
options to secure their delivery.
Table 9: Further opportunities to be developed through partners’ infrastructure pipeline
Scheme name
Location
Horsley Cross (Tendring
Europark) - Highways Costs
Quayside Expansion Harwich
International Port Quayside
Strengthening
Harwich Innovation and
Incubation Centre (Offshore)
Care Sector Development
Haven Ports - Harwich Haven
Approach, Channel Dredging
Clacton Sea Front Development
Scheme name
A120 – Haven
Gateway Corridor
Location
Dengie Gateway Programme
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Scheme name
Harlow Town Centre
A12 and Great
Eastern mainline
Heart of Essex
Corridor
Location
M11 London
Description
The Tendring Europark development site (A120 junction with B1035) is being
promoted by Croland Ltd. The scheme (Phase 1) has planning permission for a new
11.2ha industrial park with up to 28,280m of floorspace for B2 and B8 use, a bus
depot and a 30m high telecommunications mast.
Estimated cost (£m)
20
HPUK need to invest in strengthening and extending its quay to facilitate heavy lift.
5
Support to Offshore Wind Industry. Feasibility study underway this financial year
5
Links with Colchester Institute
Potential TEN-T bid, likely to be funded from developer and other sources. Major
Infrastructure Project
Potential to expand pier offer
Description
Links to mitigate loss of Bradwell Power Station. There are a number of opportunities
to kick start rural innovation working with land owners, farmers, vineyards and
building the visitor economy.
West Horndon
William Hunter Way
Baytree Shopping Centre
Mountnessing Roundabout
Brentwood Enterprise Park/Codham Hall (M25 jct 29)
Description
Instigation of scheme development to comprehensively sensibly masterplan the
5
TBC
4
Estimated cost (£m)
1.5
TBC
TBC
TBC
TBC
TBC
Estimated cost (£m)
TBC
57
Harlow Housing Delivery
(including affordable housing)
Harlow Employment Areas &
Local Centres
Productive Landscapes project
ERDF Target Sector Business
Innovation Successor
Programme
Stansted
Cambridge
Corridor
town centre and support with a realistic delivery plan and funding strategy. Work will
also include robust analysis of commercial viability.
Enabling new affordable housing and replacement/regeneration of existing housing
stock that does not meet current standards.
Regeneration of local centres at Staple Tye and Stow with the aim of securing
improved retail, employment, local services and retail.
Glass houses
This project will continue the funding for the ERDF funded project that supports the
development of Medtech businesses as part of the Medtech Campus offer. The
current funding comes to an end in 2015.
2
4
1
58
sectors have been identified in which Essex has, or could have, a
strong competitive advantage.
Productivity
This section provides detail of partners’ proposals to enhance
support for enterprise and innovation and to support key growth
sectors within Essex.
2.
Historically, productivity in the Essex economy has not been as
strong as in other areas of the South East England. In general,
areas to the west, south west and north of London have much
stronger economies than areas to the east of London. Output
per head in Essex is estimated at £18,175 per year (2012) significantly below comparable figures for London (£37,232),
counties such as Surrey (£28,628), Oxfordshire (£24,895),
Hertfordshire (£24,155), and national averages (£21,937).
Moreover, overall growth in Essex’s output has lagged behind
these comparable areas.
Addressing the productivity gap: key sectors
3.
The fact that productivity has remained lower in Essex than in
other areas of the South East reflects the industrial structure of
the Essex economy. Essex’s partners’ ambition therefore, is to
achieve significant jobs growth, whilst concentrating resources
on supporting higher value-added sectors of the economy (and
raising the skills levels within the workforce). Essex partners
have therefore adopted a process of smart specialisation – a
process through which partners can identify key sectors on
which to focus support given local assets and key trends driving
shifts in the world economy. Through this process a number of
4.
These sectors are priorities because we already have a critical
mass of business activity upon which to build and there are
strong prospects for growth in the near future which we would
expect to lead to the creation of significant high value
employment. Our key sectors are as follows:
Advanced manufacturing
5.
This is a high value sector, identified as a pillar of future UK
growth. The advanced manufacturing sector in Essex consists of
an estimated 960 companies with a combined GVA of £1.7bn,
and employs 21,900 people. This is equivalent to 1.6% of the
jobs in Essex. The sector accounts for 6.7% of total Essex GVA, a
much higher proportion than the equivalent sectoral
contribution in SELEP and England. Particular advanced
manufacturing strengths are machinery, ICT and motor vehicles,
with these sectors accounting for nearly 60% of the advanced
manufacturing firms in Essex.
6.
Harlow’s Enterprise Zone will support the growth of high-tech
and medical technology companies and we are exploring the
potential for developing an Advanced Manufacturing Centre of
Excellence in Harlow. Success will be dependent upon investing
in suitable supporting infrastructure and commercial space, and
upon promoting investment in innovation.
59
TGSE Growth Corridor SEFUND Investments
Scheme Location, Name and
Detail
Canvey
Basildon Town Centre
Craylands and Fryerns
Investment
Brief description
Development of a Business and Enterprise Park and
development of the Knightswick Centre and
surrounding land.
Redevelopment of town centre and railway station
including the relocation of South Essex College’s
Basildon campus
Last phase of the transformation of the most
deprived housing estate in South East Essex
TOTAL
Homes
Created
SLGF
Local
authority
Private
90
4.5
2
83.5
475
90
120
5.5
114.5
596
1,123
32.8
6
26.8
289
128
242.8
16
248.8
1360
1341
Jobs
Created
Homes
Created
9574
13253
2
Other
Jobs
Created
Full cost
(£m)
Table 12: Skills projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor
TGSE Growth Corridor Skills Investments
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Bio and environmental tech
centre, Basildon
Bio and environmental tech centre, Basildon
OVERALL TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
32
6
26
32
6
26
330.3
66
13.5
Private
224.8
Other
26
54
The complementary programme of investment being led by partners in Southend and Thurrock is summarised below.
Table 13: Transport projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor to be delivered through complementary investment programmes in
Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
TGSE Growth Corridor Transport Investment
Investment
Scheme Location and name
Brief description
Southend and Rochford Growth
Area JAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth Area JAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth
Area SCAAP
Southend and Rochford Growth Area SCAAP
7.0
7.0
A127 Corridor
A127 Corridor
18.0
16.6
1.4
London Gateway/ Stanford-leHope
London Gateway/ Stanford-le-Hope
12.1
7.5
0.9
Grays Town Centre
Grays Town Centre
21.54
16.40
0.14
Thurrock Integrated Transport
Package
Thurrock Integrated Transport Package
6.2
2.0
Thurrock Cycling Network
Improvements
Thurrock Cycling Network Improvements
6.1
5.0
1.1
Thurrock Lakeside
Thurrock Lakeside
22.4
13.0
0.4
Thurrock Rail Package
Thurrock Rail Package
24.0
12.0
12.0
Full cost
(£m)
SLGF
Local
authority
13.7
11.7
2.0
Jobs
Created
(directly)
Homes
created
(directly)
7380*
1768*
34104*
28391*
3.7
4400
700
5.0
2000
2607
0
0
0
0
1000
1100
16580
4200
Private
Other
4.2
9.0
TOTAL
131.0
91.1
18.0
17.7
4.2
65,464
38,766
*Note: where schemes appear within both the Essex and TGSE plan, a proportion of these figures are also reflected within the Essex investment tables above (table 10).
55
Table 14: SEFUND projects within the A13/A127 – TGSE Growth Corridor to be delivered through complementary investment programmes in
Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock
TGSE Growth Corridor SEFUND Investments
Investment
Scheme Location, Name and
Detail
Brief description
Southend and Rochford JAAP
Southend and Rochford JAAP
251.5
Southend and Rochford SCAAP
Southend and Rochford SCAAP
Thames Enterprise Centre
Private
investors
8.8
30.0
201.3
3690
0
57.9
6.8
8.7
40.0
4200
200
Thames Enterprise Centre
583.5
3.5
580.0
520
0
Purfleet
Purfleet
687.5
7.5
80.0
600.0
1500
2500
Tilbury
Tilbury
176.9
34.4
350
Grays Town Centre
4.5
4.3
1100
Grays Town Centre
181.4
68.7
30.0
450
400
11,460
3,450
1,830.4
SLGF
35.3
330.0
1,451.3
Other
Homes
Created
Local
partners
TOTAL
Full cost
(£m)
Jobs
Created
56
Future development of growth projects
1.
The projects detailed in the tables above represent the model developed project proposals within partners’ investment pipeline and those
which are best placed to benefit from investment from the SLGF. However, over the life of this plan, partners anticipate the continued
development of their infrastructure pipeline. Across Essex’s growth corridors, there are further proposals that could, with further refinement
unlock jobs and housing growth. Partners across Essex will work together to develop these projects, and to identify the right investment
options to secure their delivery.
Table 9: Further opportunities to be developed through partners’ infrastructure pipeline
Scheme name
Location
Horsley Cross (Tendring
Europark) - Highways Costs
Quayside Expansion Harwich
International Port Quayside
Strengthening
Harwich Innovation and
Incubation Centre (Offshore)
Care Sector Development
Haven Ports - Harwich Haven
Approach, Channel Dredging
Clacton Sea Front Development
Scheme name
A120 – Haven
Gateway Corridor
Location
Dengie Gateway Programme
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Brentwood Package
Scheme name
Harlow Town Centre
A12 and Great
Eastern mainline
Heart of Essex
Corridor
Location
M11 London
Description
The Tendring Europark development site (A120 junction with B1035) is being
promoted by Croland Ltd. The scheme (Phase 1) has planning permission for a new
11.2ha industrial park with up to 28,280m of floorspace for B2 and B8 use, a bus
depot and a 30m high telecommunications mast.
Estimated cost (£m)
20
HPUK need to invest in strengthening and extending its quay to facilitate heavy lift.
5
Support to Offshore Wind Industry. Feasibility study underway this financial year
5
Links with Colchester Institute
Potential TEN-T bid, likely to be funded from developer and other sources. Major
Infrastructure Project
Potential to expand pier offer
Description
Links to mitigate loss of Bradwell Power Station. There are a number of opportunities
to kick start rural innovation working with land owners, farmers, vineyards and
building the visitor economy.
West Horndon
William Hunter Way
Baytree Shopping Centre
Mountnessing Roundabout
Brentwood Enterprise Park/Codham Hall (M25 jct 29)
Description
Instigation of scheme development to comprehensively sensibly masterplan the
5
TBC
4
Estimated cost (£m)
1.5
TBC
TBC
TBC
TBC
TBC
Estimated cost (£m)
TBC
57
Harlow Housing Delivery
(including affordable housing)
Harlow Employment Areas &
Local Centres
Productive Landscapes project
ERDF Target Sector Business
Innovation Successor
Programme
Stansted
Cambridge
Corridor
town centre and support with a realistic delivery plan and funding strategy. Work will
also include robust analysis of commercial viability.
Enabling new affordable housing and replacement/regeneration of existing housing
stock that does not meet current standards.
Regeneration of local centres at Staple Tye and Stow with the aim of securing
improved retail, employment, local services and retail.
Glass houses
This project will continue the funding for the ERDF funded project that supports the
development of Medtech businesses as part of the Medtech Campus offer. The
current funding comes to an end in 2015.
2
4
1
58
sectors have been identified in which Essex has, or could have, a
strong competitive advantage.
Productivity
This section provides detail of partners’ proposals to enhance
support for enterprise and innovation and to support key growth
sectors within Essex.
2.
Historically, productivity in the Essex economy has not been as
strong as in other areas of the South East England. In general,
areas to the west, south west and north of London have much
stronger economies than areas to the east of London. Output
per head in Essex is estimated at £18,175 per year (2012) significantly below comparable figures for London (£37,232),
counties such as Surrey (£28,628), Oxfordshire (£24,895),
Hertfordshire (£24,155), and national averages (£21,937).
Moreover, overall growth in Essex’s output has lagged behind
these comparable areas.
Addressing the productivity gap: key sectors
3.
The fact that productivity has remained lower in Essex than in
other areas of the South East reflects the industrial structure of
the Essex economy. Essex’s partners’ ambition therefore, is to
achieve significant jobs growth, whilst concentrating resources
on supporting higher value-added sectors of the economy (and
raising the skills levels within the workforce). Essex partners
have therefore adopted a process of smart specialisation – a
process through which partners can identify key sectors on
which to focus support given local assets and key trends driving
shifts in the world economy. Through this process a number of
4.
These sectors are priorities because we already have a critical
mass of business activity upon which to build and there are
strong prospects for growth in the near future which we would
expect to lead to the creation of significant high value
employment. Our key sectors are as follows:
Advanced manufacturing
5.
This is a high value sector, identified as a pillar of future UK
growth. The advanced manufacturing sector in Essex consists of
an estimated 960 companies with a combined GVA of £1.7bn,
and employs 21,900 people. This is equivalent to 1.6% of the
jobs in Essex. The sector accounts for 6.7% of total Essex GVA, a
much higher proportion than the equivalent sectoral
contribution in SELEP and England. Particular advanced
manufacturing strengths are machinery, ICT and motor vehicles,
with these sectors accounting for nearly 60% of the advanced
manufacturing firms in Essex.
6.
Harlow’s Enterprise Zone will support the growth of high-tech
and medical technology companies and we are exploring the
potential for developing an Advanced Manufacturing Centre of
Excellence in Harlow. Success will be dependent upon investing
in suitable supporting infrastructure and commercial space, and
upon promoting investment in innovation.
59
Our Commitment to Delivery
 Development of proposals for economic growth and the
advancement of business interests for submission to SELEP;
This section outlines the local partnerships and governance
arrangements that will ensure effective local delivery,
accountability in local decision-making and provide assurance on
partners’ stewardship of taxpayers’ money.
45.
Our shared ambitions for growth are fully reflected in our
commitment to delivery and the governance arrangements that
underpin it. We will build on our existing robust sub-regional
partnership base (Haven Gateway Partnership, West Essex
Alliance, Heart of Essex and Thames Gateway South Essex) to
advance investments into our economic growth corridors. We
will work closely with public and private sector partners
throughout Essex to ensure our investments complement one
another and maximise private sector leverage.
46.
Essex County Council, working closely with local partners, will act
as the primary commissioning body for the funding devolved to
Essex by HM Government via SELEP. Essex County Council will, as
a voting member of the Thames Gateway South Essex
Partnership, also work closely with partners in TGSE, ensuring
alignment wherever possible.
47.
Ensuring close alignment to the requirements of Essex
businesses, the Greater Essex Business Board (GEBB) has
become established and will perform the following functions:
 Coordination of the responses of Essex, Southend and
Thurrock businesses to proposals and initiatives;
 Advocate and promote the interests of the area by working
with local authorities; and
 Work collaboratively to advance the collective interests of
Essex, Southend and Thurrock.
48.
GEBB’s primary role in the governance structure is one of project
co-design and to ensure private sector endorsement for those
decisions which are taken by local authorities for the
advancement of projects underpinning growth. The Board is
fully representative of the four sub-regions of Essex, of the
universities and of the three main business membership
organisations.
49.
It is with this strength that it meets at least quarterly in advance
of each SELEP board meeting to form a robust Essex business
view on the agenda. This arrangement is complemented by a
meeting of the five GEBB representatives on the SELEP board
with the five Essex, Southend and Thurrock local authority
representatives, scheduled to take place ahead of each LEP
meeting. This public-private partnership meeting will provide
important challenge where necessary to ensure that Greater
Essex presents the strongest possible complement of investment
opportunities to the LEP.
66
50.
51.
It is our expectation that Essex County Council, capitalising on its
role as Accountable Body for the whole of SELEP, will be the
administrator of devolved funding from SELEP. The governance
arrangements depicted as building blocks in Figure 1 overleaf are
simplified for the sake of clarity. While it is clear that lower-level
geography specific or sector specific boards or groupings are in
place to advance the agenda, what is illustrated here are the
arrangements which have a clear line of sight to the SELEP. Most
are well established, though some arrangements are in their
infancy. New or proposed Boards, such as the Local Innovation
Board, are illustrated with a dotted line.
immediate term will be identifying the appropriate forum if
partners consider that it does not exist already.
Project management
Key group: Individual project sponsors
Each Delivery Plan will stipulate the stakeholders involved in
the delivery of projects and it will be expected that cross
organisational groupings will convene (potentially
commissioned by Essex County Council) to advance projects.
Oversight should be provided by the Economic Plan Delivery
Group (current ICS working group).
52.
It will be important to ensure that projects are advanced and
approvals are achieved through individual governance
arrangements within, for example, universities; district, borough
and city councils; and other funding partners. This will include
district-level business groupings and local level working groups
which support our focus on growth corridors.
53.
We will develop a delivery plan or plans to support our
objectives and ensure that LGF and European funding is able to
unlock growth as planned. Interventions will be clear, focused
and integrated and will engage wider stakeholders in their
delivery. We aim to have a final version of our delivery plan(s) in
place by November 2014 (see timetable below).
54.
To support delivery of investment, Essex partners plan to invest
in creating a major infrastructure delivery unit to bring together
capacity across a range of public services, underpinned by a
single infrastructure plan for Essex. This will be supported by the
development of an Essex Planning Compact – a series of
collective commitments to deliver planning decisions faster and
Decision-making requirements will generally fall into three
categories, as set out below:
Strategic:
Key group: ECEA & Leaders; Greater Essex
Business Board; Local authorities
All local authorities will use existing partnership
arrangements to ensure that the right decisions are taken.
For example, in the case of transport in Essex, Highways
Panels and local delivery partnerships will be involved in the
decision-making process which will ultimately be the role of
Essex County Council.
Allocative:
Key group: Economic Plan Delivery Group
(supported by businesses and HE/FE reps)
Projects which come forward for funding, and for
consideration at either the Economic Plan Delivery Group or
ECEA will all be independently and consistently appraised
according to the value for money and appraisal guidance
issued by the LEP. This will allow for fair comparative
judgements at the requisite forum. A key task in the
67
7.
There are established clusters of advanced manufacturing
businesses in Basildon, Chelmsford, Harlow and Brentwood, with
leading names such as Ford and Raytheon Ltd, e2v, Visteon
Engineering and Selex ES.
Low carbon & renewables
8.
9.
10.
This is a significant sector across Essex and for the UK, with a
growing demand for low carbon and environmental goods and
services to meet the UK’s carbon reduction target of 80% by
2050. Based on research commissioned by the BIS in 2010, these
sectors already account for almost £3bn in business turnover per
annum, across 1,348 companies, and employing almost 20,000
people in Essex.
At the heart of Essex's offer to low carbon sectors is access to a
number of strong and established related (and potentially
related) sectors. These include ICT and advanced electronics,
financial and business services, construction, creative industries,
ports and logistics, low carbon and environmental goods and
services.
Essex is home to a competitive renewable energy sector, with
Harwich International Port already at the leading edge of
servicing offshore wind farm delivery, as well as significant
activity in Maldon, including potential for a new nuclear power
plant at Bradwell. Looking to the future, expansion at Bathside
Bay (adjacent to Harwich International Port) could further
increase Essex’s opportunities in this area.
11.
Significantly, precision engineering, aerospace and the
automotive sector based around Basildon are likely to be key
complementary sectors that could contribute directly to the
offshore energy supply chain.
12.
Key locations are the whole of the east coast of Essex, with
particular centres of excellence at Ford Dunton (green
automotive technologies), Harwich (offshore wind) and Writtle
College (land based sciences).
Logistics
13.
The logistics sector in Essex accounts for approximately 1,800
firms, employing 17,800 people with an annual GVA of around
£1.2bn. Businesses in the sector were more likely than other
sectors to have plans to enter new product/service
areas/markets and to expand, and more likely to have made
capital investment in their Essex sites over the past 12 months.
14.
The sector is heavily dependent upon Essex’s seaport and airport
strengths, and access to South East markets and Europe. Just
outside our area, Thurrock is the site of the largest combined
deep sea container port and logistics park project in Europe (DP
World/London Gateway) and the district of Uttlesford is home to
the UK’s third largest airport for freight and fourth largest for
passenger travel (Stansted).
15.
A real strength of the logistics sector in Essex arises from
innovative firms that are based in the sector, which contributes
to the wider health of the Essex economy.
60
16.
Key locations for logistics activity are Thurrock, Southend,
Stansted and Harwich. Ports and logistics account for more than
1 in 10 jobs in Thurrock and Uttlesford.
Digital, cultural & creative
20.
Digital, cultural & creative refers to firms that are involved in all
aspects of the creative economy, including: software
development and publishing, cultural activities, design, the arts,
music, film, television and radio. There are 2,400 firms in the
sector, employing 10,875 people and generating £1bn in GVA
per annum.
21.
We have high expectations for growth in Essex across this sector.
We already have a number of significant assets, including METAL
and Firstsite in Colchester. With a number of Essex locations
within an hour’s travel of London’s Tech City there is potential
for Essex to accommodate some of the growing demand for
firms looking outside the cluster for start-up or grow-on space.
New developments like the Creative Business Centre in
Colchester will provide the infrastructure necessary to attract
and retain some of these firms, as well as help more local
businesses in the sector to start-up and grow.
22.
The University of Essex Knowledge Gateway will be home to
leading-edge expertise in ‘Big Data’, which will have a significant
impact on this sector.
23.
There are clusters of sectoral activity at Chelmsford, Colchester
and Southend. The legacy of Nortel in West Essex means that
there is a skilled workforce of technicians in the area able to
support the technical demands of the sector.
Life sciences & healthcare
17.
18.
19.
Life sciences & healthcare refers to a series of sectors centred
around providing new drugs and healthcare technologies, and
providing essential healthcare services to the general population
and older people. The three main sub-sectors are life sciences,
Med Tech and care services. In total, there are just over 1,000
firms in these sectors in Essex employing 37,400 people with an
annual GVA of £797m.
Essex has specific strengths in scientific research and
development, and manufacture of medical and dental
equipment, pharmaceutical and optical products. In Med Tech
alone there is a significant, and growing, UK and global market,
which Essex is well placed to support. We are working in
partnership with Anglia Ruskin University to establish three Med
Tech campuses at Chelmsford, Harlow and Southend. Essex also
has localised strengths in the care sector. Tendring District
Council is working to establish the district as a genuinely
innovative ‘trailblazer’ for the UK, focussing support on higher
value activities within the sector and making the area an
exemplar for research, innovation and growth.
There are clusters of Life Science companies in Harlow,
Southend, Uttlesford (benefiting from proximity to Cambridge)
and Brentwood. Other key locations are Chelmsford and
Tendring.
61
 The University of Essex Knowledge Gateway in Colchester.
Development of the University of Essex Knowledge Gateway
will deliver a world class innovation centre that will support
the incubation of businesses linked to the university’s
strengths in data analytics and data science. The University
has already invested £9m in infrastructure to service the
Knowledge Gateway in order to create developable plots
and is investing a further £21m in a new building to house its
business school. This will house the Centre for Enterprise
and Growth (CREG).
The University has recently secured £4m from the Economic
and Social Research Council to further enhance its UK Data
Archive as a national resource and is now bidding for a
further £7m to add a new Centre for Local Government and
Business Data. This will create a world class asset to support
the Big Data sector.
innovation support programmes and work on knowledge
transfer networks.
Addressing the productivity gap: support for business
31.
Partners also recognise that, if Essex is to sustain growth, then
our businesses will need to compete with firms from across the
globe. Partners in Essex are committed to ensuring that
businesses have access to the right support when they need this.
While support for businesses in our priority sectors may deliver a
greater economic return in the longer term, businesses in all
sectors can benefit from support when they are looking to startup, innovate, grow and explore new markets.
32.
We are already providing a large amount of support to Essex
businesses. Over the last three years our projects and
programmes have:
 created 4,425 jobs;
 supported 193 start-ups;
 The Anglia Ruskin Med-Tech Campuses at Chelmsford,
Harlow and Southend.
Anglia Ruskin University’s Med Tech Campuses will create
one of the world’s largest health innovation hubs, attracting
international and national companies around the innovative
medical technology sector. Investment in the campuses will
help to establish Essex, and the UK, as a global leader in this
sector and will secure local and national economic growth.
The ARU Med Tech Campus will be split over three sites: in
Chelmsford, Harlow, and Southend. Partners have already
achieved significant progress on this project and have a clear
plan in place to scale up and consolidate business services,
 established 39 Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs);
 supported 105 companies to export; and
 supported 76 firms to invest in or locate in Essex
33.
But at present, different providers of business support services
typically work on a localised basis. This generates some highly
effective local outcomes, but does not benefit from the scale
which an Essex-wide perspective could bring. Going forward,
partners across Essex - including the County Council, the
University of Essex and Anglia Ruskin University - will deliver a
63
more coherent service so that businesses understand where and
how to access support.
34.
35.
36.
37.
Our proposal, therefore, is to integrate business support
provision under a single brand, enhancing provision through
economies of scale and providing a single pathway to business
support. As we do this, we will recognise that there is a large
ecosystem of private firms providing professional expertise and
advice to companies already. We will work with these private
firms and with business membership groups, such as Essex
Chambers of Commerce, the IoD and the FSB, and will only seek
to complement, and not to replace, existing provision in Essex.
To provide effective strategic oversight and guidance, we will
establish a Local Innovation Board (LIB) for Essex. This will be a
business-chaired board and will ensure that our projects and
programmes deliver the most value for our local companies.
This approach will combine existing business support provision
under a smaller number of Essex-wide schemes, and allow us to
implement these at scale. This will bring economies and improve
value for money. It will also enable us to better share
information and expertise, both from a provider perspective, and
in helping companies to create new links to firms within and
outside of Essex.
To support this, we will be asking HM Government to commit
£5m in revenue funding to support this radical new approach,
and to ensure national business support providers (e.g. Growth
Accelerator, UKTI) also work to integrate their programmes
under this brand and pathway to support.
With this integrated approach in place, our work to support
enterprises, promote competitiveness and attract inward
investment will cover four clear themes. These are:
 Business Creation: supporting business start-ups and
innovative spin-offs to be successful and to position
themselves for growth;
 Business Growth and Innovation: creating an innovation
intensive environment within Essex which is conducive to
the creation and exploitation of new ideas and helping to
build capacity within local firms to access, generate and
commercialise new innovations;
 Promoting International Trade: helping firms to create
better links internationally, partnering with firms /
institutions in China to facilitate economic growth in Essex;
and
 Attracting Inward Investment: assisting firms to invest and
locate their business activity in Essex, and promoting Essex
as a business destination for firms across the rest of the UK
and abroad.
38.
Finally, and to support this integrated approach to business
support, partners across Essex propose to invest in the
expansion and improvement of our network of business
incubation centres. These provide dedicated business support to
firms with the aim of helping them to ‘graduate’ to commercial
premises elsewhere. Based on the success of Essex’s existing
network – including Essex County Council’s own incubation
centres in Clacton, Ongar and Basildon; Business centres in
64
Colchester run by COLBEA and the Harlow Enterprise Hub –
partners have identified further sites for additional incubation
space at:
 the Ignite Enterprise Centre in Braintree – the Panfield Lane
development to the West of Braintree will support further
expansion at this centre;
are keen to work with Southend to explore the possibility of
extending the concept out across Essex, and then into the wider
South East LEP area .
Our investments and impacts
41.
The capital investment that partners propose for developing and
enhancing Innovations Centres, Enterprise Zones and Incubation
Centres is contained within the Growth Locations tables in
section above.
42.
To support the ongoing delivery of business support activity
between 2014 and 2021, local partners have identified revenue
resources totalling some £78m. We are seeking a further £5m
from HM Government to support the integration and
enhancement of business support programmes.
43.
Of the £78m identified, around £20m is expected from local
authority partners and Essex’s Higher Education Institutions. A
further £27.5m is anticipated as leverage from private investors
and a further £26m will be drawn down from the EU and other
funding sources.
44.
With this programme of financial support in place – including the
£5m from HM Government – local partners expect to create and
enable 41,700 new jobs in Essex by 2021.
 a Witham Enterprise Centre – developing a new, selfsustaining Enterprise Centre in Witham would provide 25
enterprise start up units supported by business advice and
support and training facilities; and
 the Creative Business Centre in Colchester – as part of the
Colchester Town Growth location project, partners propose
the construction of a Creative Business Centre to provide
workspace, innovation, networking and presentation areas.
39.
40.
Essex partners also support the proposals to develop a network
of ‘Growth Hubs’. Growth Hubs are ‘one-stop-shop’ locations,
providing businesses with a single portal through which they can
access local and national support. Growth Hubs are designed to
engage proactively with local businesses to ensure maximum
economic impact of the assistance they provide. They also
provide access to incubation and innovation facilities alongside a
programme of business support.
Partners in Southend are piloting a Growth Hub combining
business space and integrating business support. Essex partners
65
Our Commitment to Delivery
 Development of proposals for economic growth and the
advancement of business interests for submission to SELEP;
This section outlines the local partnerships and governance
arrangements that will ensure effective local delivery,
accountability in local decision-making and provide assurance on
partners’ stewardship of taxpayers’ money.
45.
Our shared ambitions for growth are fully reflected in our
commitment to delivery and the governance arrangements that
underpin it. We will build on our existing robust sub-regional
partnership base (Haven Gateway Partnership, West Essex
Alliance, Heart of Essex and Thames Gateway South Essex) to
advance investments into our economic growth corridors. We
will work closely with public and private sector partners
throughout Essex to ensure our investments complement one
another and maximise private sector leverage.
46.
Essex County Council, working closely with local partners, will act
as the primary commissioning body for the funding devolved to
Essex by HM Government via SELEP. Essex County Council will, as
a voting member of the Thames Gateway South Essex
Partnership, also work closely with partners in TGSE, ensuring
alignment wherever possible.
47.
Ensuring close alignment to the requirements of Essex
businesses, the Greater Essex Business Board (GEBB) has
become established and will perform the following functions:
 Coordination of the responses of Essex, Southend and
Thurrock businesses to proposals and initiatives;
 Advocate and promote the interests of the area by working
with local authorities; and
 Work collaboratively to advance the collective interests of
Essex, Southend and Thurrock.
48.
GEBB’s primary role in the governance structure is one of project
co-design and to ensure private sector endorsement for those
decisions which are taken by local authorities for the
advancement of projects underpinning growth. The Board is
fully representative of the four sub-regions of Essex, of the
universities and of the three main business membership
organisations.
49.
It is with this strength that it meets at least quarterly in advance
of each SELEP board meeting to form a robust Essex business
view on the agenda. This arrangement is complemented by a
meeting of the five GEBB representatives on the SELEP board
with the five Essex, Southend and Thurrock local authority
representatives, scheduled to take place ahead of each LEP
meeting. This public-private partnership meeting will provide
important challenge where necessary to ensure that Greater
Essex presents the strongest possible complement of investment
opportunities to the LEP.
66
50.
51.
It is our expectation that Essex County Council, capitalising on its
role as Accountable Body for the whole of SELEP, will be the
administrator of devolved funding from SELEP. The governance
arrangements depicted as building blocks in Figure 1 overleaf are
simplified for the sake of clarity. While it is clear that lower-level
geography specific or sector specific boards or groupings are in
place to advance the agenda, what is illustrated here are the
arrangements which have a clear line of sight to the SELEP. Most
are well established, though some arrangements are in their
infancy. New or proposed Boards, such as the Local Innovation
Board, are illustrated with a dotted line.
immediate term will be identifying the appropriate forum if
partners consider that it does not exist already.
Project management
Key group: Individual project sponsors
Each Delivery Plan will stipulate the stakeholders involved in
the delivery of projects and it will be expected that cross
organisational groupings will convene (potentially
commissioned by Essex County Council) to advance projects.
Oversight should be provided by the Economic Plan Delivery
Group (current ICS working group).
52.
It will be important to ensure that projects are advanced and
approvals are achieved through individual governance
arrangements within, for example, universities; district, borough
and city councils; and other funding partners. This will include
district-level business groupings and local level working groups
which support our focus on growth corridors.
53.
We will develop a delivery plan or plans to support our
objectives and ensure that LGF and European funding is able to
unlock growth as planned. Interventions will be clear, focused
and integrated and will engage wider stakeholders in their
delivery. We aim to have a final version of our delivery plan(s) in
place by November 2014 (see timetable below).
54.
To support delivery of investment, Essex partners plan to invest
in creating a major infrastructure delivery unit to bring together
capacity across a range of public services, underpinned by a
single infrastructure plan for Essex. This will be supported by the
development of an Essex Planning Compact – a series of
collective commitments to deliver planning decisions faster and
Decision-making requirements will generally fall into three
categories, as set out below:
Strategic:
Key group: ECEA & Leaders; Greater Essex
Business Board; Local authorities
All local authorities will use existing partnership
arrangements to ensure that the right decisions are taken.
For example, in the case of transport in Essex, Highways
Panels and local delivery partnerships will be involved in the
decision-making process which will ultimately be the role of
Essex County Council.
Allocative:
Key group: Economic Plan Delivery Group
(supported by businesses and HE/FE reps)
Projects which come forward for funding, and for
consideration at either the Economic Plan Delivery Group or
ECEA will all be independently and consistently appraised
according to the value for money and appraisal guidance
issued by the LEP. This will allow for fair comparative
judgements at the requisite forum. A key task in the
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